firefighting Firefighting: how do men do it and can women do it too?

"There is a serious danger that fire policy will be developed on the basis of work carried out in the context of the market place rather than being underpinned by research which has been subjected to full process of academic rigour and peer review" Professor D Drysdale (European Vice-Chair, International Association of Fire Safety Sciences) and D T Davis (Chair of the Executive Committee, Institution of Fire Engineers). Fire Engineers Journal 61, 10, 6-7

"One Decade On"

Ten years ago I carried out one of the first surveys of women firefighters in the UK. This survey provided data for “Who Rings the Bell” a report that set a benchmark on the fire service’s reaction to women who became firefighters.

Since that time I have worked to improve the fire service’s understanding of the difficulties women face as firefighters. My work has included the influential audit of informal cultures operating in the fire service "One more working class hero” and a national audit of initial training that produces a profile for how training may incorperate new firefighters without enculturating them "Sunrise: a new dawn on training.”

Now, one decade on, I am again carrying out a survey of women firefighters. I will then compare the findings with my earlier research and produce a report that sets a further benchmark for women in the fire service.

The data for this research has now been collected and coded into SPSS and NVivo.

See below for current releases on this research

If you would like to receive an email when their is a new release of data please contact dave.baigent@fitting-in.com