Women first responders are easy to miss, and the numbers explain why. The CDC’s workplace health institute reports that the fire service is still 91% male. In policing, the 30×30 Initiative reports that women are under 14% of sworn officers and 20% of recruits. When the ratio is that lopsided, a woman on a crew can go a whole career without a peer who does her exact job and lives her exact life.
That is the first thing she is missing: other women who get it. Not a counselor or a hotline. A sister who has stood where she stands.
"Not a counselor or a hotline. A sister who has stood where she stands."
The second thing is smaller and just as telling. The same CDC report says women firefighters were two to three times more likely than men to report gear that doesn’t fit, and 65% reported problems with ill-fitting gear. Poor fit can hinder movement and raise injury risk. Gear, policies and buildings were designed around the people already on the job, and the people who weren’t there got left out of the design. Departments are working on it. The CDC describes research projects aimed at exactly this. It is still a quiet signal about who the system was built for.
Research on women firefighters also names discrimination and harassment among the reasons women don’t enter the service or don’t stay. That is a real problem, and no chief wants it on their crew.
Here is where we want to be fair. Most departments are not the villain in this story. Many are trying. But a department can fix a glove size. It cannot be a place outside the chain of command where a woman says what is true to other women who do the same work. That job belongs to someone else.
That is why Invisible Warriors is bringing women first responders in. We have always served women veterans and active duty women. Women first responders belong in the same sisterhood, and we say their name every time we say ours. They attend our Beyond the Uniform Retreat. They are in the IW Club community. Rally Point, our program that connects women to housing, resources and peer support, is open to women first responders who never served in the military.
"The women who run toward the worst day in a stranger's life don't need saving."
We are not here to rescue anyone. The women who run toward the worst day in a stranger’s life don’t need saving. They need to be seen, heard and connected, and to know other women who are walking the same road.
If you are a woman who serves or has served in fire, EMS, law enforcement, dispatch or corrections, come find your people in the Invisible Warriors Club. If you lead a department and want your women to know we exist, write me at [email protected].
Seen | Heard | Connected.
Women Who Run Toward the Call
Invisible Warriors
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