Female firefighters on the rise

With International Women’s Day having just taken place, fire and rescue services are being urged to challenge “age-old stereotypes” and shift perceptions of the role as crews focus on prevention work.

The latest Home Office data reveals that in 2019, there were 75 on-call and full-time female firefighters in the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service, alongside 1,293 men.

That means just 5.5 per cent of Greater Manchester’s operational workforce were women​.

A spokesman for Wigan fire station said there were several female firefighters based at the borough’s four bases.

​Despite the figure improving slightly from 1.8 per cent in 2014, it leaves GMFRS below the national average of 6.4 per cent.

Firefighting remains a male-dominated profession, and volunteer-led organisation Women in the Fire Service UK says despite an increasing number of female firefighters signifying a “huge cultural shift,” further education is vital to promote firefighting as a career for all genders.

A WFS UK spokesperson said: “The general public don’t give much consideration to the gender of firefighters. All they are concerned about is that when they call 999 requesting the fire service, that help arrives in the form of professional firefighters.

“Do they see the people inside the uniform, under the helmet, behind the visors? When asked, many young people guess the gender statistics to be more 50-50 and when told it’s 94 to six are visibly shocked.

“Unfortunately, it’s down to education. Many still see the role of a firefighter as a ‘fireman’ – someone who will be a hero and throw you over his shoulder and bring you out of a burning building as in films, but this is not how modern fire and rescue services operate.”

They added that fire services should do more to promote the varied nature of the role and battle against “age-old stereotypes.”

In 2018-19, 19 women joined the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service as firefighters, compared to 106 men.

A recent report from Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Fire and Rescue Services highlighted a “striking” lack of diversity across the sector.