This presentation was designed to share visual representations of females in relationship to fire and fire fighting with female fire fighters attending WAFA 2012. The formal stuff: Dr Merilyn Childs, A/Prof of Higher Education, Charles Sturt University. Presentation to the WAFA Conference 2012 - 'Achieving Success: Courage and Confidence Under Fire’ 26 - 28 July 2012, Hotel Grand Chancellor , Adelaide. The "NSWFB" referred to on slide 2, is the New South Wales Fire Brigades, Australia.

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2.  Ninna Marni - (A Kaurna phrase for "Hello, how are you?")
 I would like to acknowledge this land that we meet on today
is the traditional lands for Kaurna people and that we respect
their spiritual relationship with the country. We also
acknowledge the Kaurna people as the custodians of the
Adelaide region and that their cultural and heritage beliefs
are still as important to the living Kaurna people today.
 I also want to pay my respects to Kaurna women who are
likely to be amongst the first fire management experts using
fire sticks on this land.
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3.  I provided promotional programs for SFF and SOs in the
areas of leadership and decision making to the (then)
NSWFB during a 10 year period (1996-2006) and graduated a
generation of operational leaders in that fire service.
 I worked with, but not for, the NSWFB. I was at the time the
Co-Director of the Centre for Learning and Social
Transformation at the University of Western Sydney. There, I
conducted applied research into higher education,
workbased learning, and social and labour market
participation. I also taught undergraduate and postgraduate
programs in the social sciences and adult education.
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4.  The absence of women in my work with the NSWFB over a
decade troubled me greatly. I resolved this “trouble” by
instigating and convening the first WIFF Conference in
Sydney in 2005. It was seeded by a small grant from the
NSWFB, the support of women in the industry, the FBEU
(NSW) and a number of agencies around Australia.
 As Enarson & Morrow argued (1998): gender matters in
disasters. It also matters in fire fighting – not simply as we
look at the impact of incidents, but also as we look at the
people who respond to them.
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5.  The issue of women and fire fighting can be vexed, and sometimes
researchers such as myself have to speak publically about difficult issues.
Academics should speak with courage and confidence, even when under
fire, drawing on sound evidence. I am currently updating my research
from 2005 and 2006, and hope to publish again in 2013. If you wish to
access my archives, see http://womeninfirefighting.blogspot.com.au/
 Robust research related to gender and fire fighting, and gender and
disasters remains important, but is lacking in Australia. But note:
 Cindy Branch-Smith et al’s work eg 2009-2010
http://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=308413921879747;res=IELHSS
 Tyler et al (2012) Gender matters
http://www.bushfirecrc.com/managed/resource/gender_matters_working_paper_no-
_3.pdf
 Jim McLennan et al’s 2005-2006 work http://www.bushfirecrc.com/resources/poster-
presentation/volunteer-firefighting-suitable-job-woman
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6. Delegates – Inaugural Women in
Fire Fighting Conference, Sydney
2005 6

7.  There are so many research questions that could be
asked about the gendered nature of fire fighting
(EMS labour, disasters)
 But for now..... One way is to better understand the
larger forces at work in society, in order to imagine
new possibilities. C. Wright Mills (1959) called this
the “sociological imagination”.
 I use visual images to better understand the way
society might “see” fire fighting labour.
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24. Many of the ranks of the NFS were
made up of women - in March 1943
there were 32,200 women serving
with the National Fire Service. For
the part time fire fighters, men were
on duty every fourth night and
women every sixth night.
http://www.wartimememories.co.uk/
afs.html
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32. In 1945 a law was passed in Australian that made it illegal for women to be
Employed in many occupations, including as firefighters. This law was not changed
until the Sex Discrimination Act in 1984. In the post-war period women were shown
in sexualised, domesticated and consumerist iconography in relationship to fire fighting.
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38.  http://girlsonfire.com.au/recruitment/
 http://archive.instituteartistmanagement.co
m/offer/222 Lauren Greenfield
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39.  This presentation was in part a rare visual celebration of representations
of women and fire fighting that changed in relationship to historical
events and the utility of women in war time.
 But it was also about the ambiguous encounters that emerges in the
social imagination between women and fire fighting as a result of
industrial organisation.
 Would it help if there were iconic portrayal of female firefighters, as
there have always been for male fire fighters? Or is the focus on the
iconic unhelpful in changing the gendered nature of fire fighting?
 In 2006 I established that less than 5% of the paid Australian fire fighting
workforce in Australia was female (Childs, 2006). Whilst this study now
needs to be updated, the facts in 2006 remain interesting. Further
research – and social and industrial change – is needed! 39

40.  Images used in this presentation were drawn from my
personal collection of photographs and images over 50 years
old, and now in the public domain
 Please visit my Women in Fire Fighting (Australia) Blog
(under development in 2013) at
http://womeninfirefighting.blogspot.com.au/
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