| ? |
Women Firefighters, 1999:
A Status Report
One of the many functions of Women in the Fire Service is to maintain current statistics on the numbers of women in firefighting. We have been researching and compiling this data for more than sixteen years, and are the only agency in the country to do so.
This report covers suppression-trained women in the U.S. with career-level positions in structural firefighting (or, in the case of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, a combination of structural and wildland firefighting). It does not include volunteer firefighters, who are so numerous and spread out over so many thousands of fire departments that we would only be able to track them if each state collected its own data ? which most do not. It also does not include wildland firefighters (other than those in CDF); we hope to improve our data collection in that area over the coming months and eventually provide a comparable status report for that area of the fire service.
The total number of women firefighters and officers included in our current data is 4,784. Adding a conservative 5-10% to account for women not included in these statistics gives a current estimate of 5000-5200 women active in the career structural fire service in the U.S.
Following is a state-by-state breakdown of the data, including the number of women firefighters in each state, and the number who have been promoted to engineer, sergeant, lieutenant, captain, and chief. As a convenient shorthand, "chief" in the listings below designates any level of district chief, battalion chief, deputy chief, assistant chief, etc., while women at the top level of their department are listed separately as "chief of department."
It should be noted that because different departments and different regions vary in their rank structures, exact comparisons are misleading. Some fire departments do not use the rank of captain; others, particularly in California, do not have lieutenants. A captain, therefore, might be an engine company officer, a ladder company officer, or a station commander supervising one or more lieutenants.
Following the state listings are summaries of the numbers of women officers, the top five states in terms of number of women firefighters, a list of fire departments with the highest percentages of women firefighters, and a list of the ten largest U.S. fire departments that employ no women firefighters at all.
WFS' data collection is always a work in progress. We gather it in many different ways: from our contacts with fire chiefs, from newspaper articles and press releases, and ? most importantly ? from our members. We hope publishing this report will encourage WFS' members and supporters to continue to help us update the information and keep it as current and accurate as possible.
| ?Alabama
|
?33 women on 9 departments |
| ? |
?(19 of the 33 are on the Birmingham F.D.) |
| ? |
?1 engineer, 2 captains |
| ? |
? |
| ?Alaska
|
?11 women on 3 departments |
| ? |
?2 engineers |
| ? |
? |
| ?Arizona
|
?113 women on 18 departments |
| ? |
?(81 of the 113 are on Phoenix & Tucson) |
| ? |
?14 engineers, 3 lieutenants, 12 captains, 1 chief |
| ? |
? |
| ?Arkansas
|
?13 women on 6 departments |
| ? |
?(9 on Little Rock & North Little Rock) |
| ? |
? |
| ?California
|
1008 women on 125 departments |
| ? |
(570 women on CDF, San Francisco, L.A. City & San Diego) |
| ? |
96 engineers (70 on CDF), 5 lieutenants, 51 captains, 11 chiefs, 2 chiefs of department |
| ? |
? |
| ?Colorado
|
143 women on 24 departments |
| ? |
(89 women on Colorado Springs, Denver, Aurora & Boulder) |
| ? |
4 engineers, 8 lieutenants, 2 captains, 1 chief |
| ? |
? |
| ?Connecticut
|
55 women on 27 departments |
| ? |
1 lieutenant |
| ? |
? |
| Delaware |
?6 women on 1 department |
| ? |
? |
| District of Columbia |
42 women on 1 department |
| ? |
1 sergeant, 1 lieutenant |
| ? |
? |
| ?Florida
|
655 women on 110 departments |
| ? |
(194 on Miami Dade County & Orange County) |
| ? |
16 engineers, 35 lieutenants, 9 captains, 10 chiefs, 1 chief of department |
| ? |
? |
| ?Georgia
|
?77 women on 24 departments |
| ? |
?2 lieutenants, 1 captain, 3 chiefs, 1 chief of department |
| ? |
? |
| ?Guam
|
?1 woman on 1 department |
| ? |
? |
| ?Hawaii
|
?9 women on 4 departments |
| ? |
?1 captain |
| ? |
? |
| ?Idaho
|
2 woman on 2 departments |
| ? |
? |
| ?Illinois
|
173 women on 58 departments |
| ? |
(80 on Chicago) |
| ? |
2 engineers, 6 lieutenants, 1 captain, 1 chief of department |
| ? |
? |
| ?Indiana
|
72 women on 23 departments |
| ? |
2 engineers, 3 lieutenants, 2 captains, 4 chiefs, 1 chief of department |
| ? |
? |
| ?Iowa
|
35 women on 12 departments |
| ? |
? |
| ?Kansas
|
29 women on 12 departments |
| ? |
(12 on Topeka) |
| ? |
2 engineers, 3 lieutenants, 1 captain |
| ? |
? |
| ?Kentucky
|
26 women on 10 departments |
| ? |
1 engineer, 1 lieutenant, 2 captains, 1 chief |
| ? |
? |
| ?Louisiana
|
74 women on 11 departments |
| ? |
(61 on Shreveport & Baton Rouge) |
| ? |
1 engineer, 1 lieutenant, 2 captains |
| ? |
? |
| ?Maine
|
6 women on 6 departments |
| ? |
1 lieutenant |
| ? |
? |
| ?Maryland
|
224 women on 7 departments |
| ? |
(100 on Montgomery County) |
| ? |
1 sergeant, 4 lieutenants, 3 captains, 4 chiefs |
| ? |
? |
| ?Massachusetts
|
65 women on 44 departments |
| ? |
4 lieutenants, 1 captain |
(Return to top of page)
| ?Michigan
|
135 women on 23 departments |
| ? |
2 engineers, 9 lieutenants, 2 captains, 1 chief |
| ? |
? |
| ?Minnesota
|
57 women on 6 departments |
| ? |
(38 on Minneapolis) |
| ? |
1 engineer, 9 captains, 1 chief |
| ? |
? |
| ?Mississippi
|
?24 women on 9 departments |
| ? |
?(10 on Jackson) |
| ? |
?1 engineer, 1 lieutenant, 2 captains |
| ? |
? |
| ?Missouri
|
?64 women on 26 departments |
| ? |
?2 engineers, 7 captains, 1 chief |
| ? |
? |
| ?Montana
|
No women known to be career firefighters for structural fire agencies |
| ? |
? |
| ?Nebraska
|
?21 women on 4 departments |
| ? |
?(17 on Omaha) |
| ? |
?2 captains |
| ? |
? |
| ?Nevada
|
?63 women on 6 departments |
| ? |
?3 engineers, 6 captains |
| ? |
? |
| New Hampshire |
?13 women on 10 departments |
| ? |
?1 chief |
| ? |
? |
| ?New Jersey
|
?8 women on 6 departments |
| ? |
?1 lieutenant |
| ? |
? |
| ?New Mexico
|
?34 women on 9 departments |
| ? |
?(23 on Albuquerque & Bernalillo County) |
| ? |
?1 engineer, 1 lieutenant, 1 chief |
| ? |
? |
| ?New York
|
?71 women on 18 departments |
| ? |
?(36 on New York City) |
| ? |
?2 fire marshals, 3 lieutenants, 1 captain |
| ? |
? |
| ?North Carolina
|
129 women on 30 departments |
| ? |
5 engineers, 6 lieutenants, 10 captains, 3 chiefs, 1 chief of department |
| ? |
? |
| ?North Dakota
|
4 women on 3 departments |
| ? |
? |
| ?Ohio
|
180 women on 54 departments |
| ? |
9 lieutenants, 7 captains, 2 chiefs |
| ? |
? |
| ?Oklahoma
|
27 women on 7 departments |
| ? |
(17 on Oklahoma City) |
| ? |
4 captains, 1 chief |
| ? |
? |
| ?Oregon
|
?64 women on 16 departments |
| ? |
?2 engineers, 4 lieutenants, 2 chiefs |
| ? |
? |
| ?Pennsylvania
|
?43 women on 11 departments |
| ? |
?(21 on Pittsburgh) |
| ? |
?2 lieutenants, 1 captain |
| ? |
? |
| ?Puerto Rico
|
?1 woman on 1 department |
| ? |
?1 lieutenant |
| ? |
? |
| ?Rhode Island
|
?13 women on 8 departments |
| ? |
?(6 on Providence) |
| ? |
? |
| ?South Carolina
|
?14 women on 10 departments |
| ? |
?1 captain |
| ? |
? |
| ?South Dakota
|
?4 women on 2 departments |
| ? |
? |
| ?Tennessee
|
?66 women on 16 departments |
| ? |
?9 engineers, 4 lieutenants |
| ? |
? |
| ?Texas
|
?306 women on 45 departments |
| ? |
?(139 on Houston & Dallas) |
| ? |
?17 engineers, 9 lieutenants, 3 captains, 2 chiefs |
| ? |
? |
| ?Utah
|
?17 women on 8 departments |
| ? |
?1 captain, 1 chief |
| ? |
? |
| ?Vermont
|
?5 women on 3 departments |
| ? |
? |
| ?Virginia
|
206 women on 25 departments |
| ? |
1 engineer, 7 lieutenants, 3 captains, 1 chief, 2 chiefs of department |
| ? |
? |
| ?Washington
|
199 women on 26 departments |
| ? |
(120 on Seattle & Tacoma) |
| ? |
1 engineer, 11 lieutenants, 3 captains, 5 chiefs, 1 chief of department |
| ? |
? |
| ?West Virginia
|
15 women on 4 departments |
| ? |
? |
| ?Wisconsin
|
121 women on 25 departments |
| ? |
(76 on Madison & Milwaukee) |
| ? |
2 engineers, 11 lieutenants, 1 captain, 2 chiefs, 1 chief of department |
| ? |
? |
| ?Wyoming
|
1 woman on 1 department
1 company officer |
Total women in promoted positions
Engineers: 186
Fire Marshals: 2
Sergeants: 2
Lieutenants: 156
Captains: 152
Chiefs (other than top-level chief): 58
Chiefs of department: 11
?
Top states by number of women firefighters
California: 1008
Florida: 655
Texas: 306
Maryland: 224
Virginia: 207
?
Urban fire departments (more than 75 career personnel) with the highest percentages of women firefighters
Madison, Wisconsin: 14.8%
Boulder, Colorado: 14%
Clay County, Florida: 13.8%
San Francisco: 11.7%
Montgomery Co., Maryland: 10.2%
Ten other departments have percentages of women firefighters in the 8.5 - 9% range.
Ten largest fire departments with no women firefighters
New Orleans, Louisiana
Jersey City, New Jersey
Worcester, Massachusetts
Yonkers, New York
Elizabeth, New Jersey
Atlantic City, New Jersey
Paterson, New Jersey
Bayonne, New Jersey
Garden Grove, California
Allentown, Pennsylvania
This material originally appeared as an article in the July 1999 issue of the WFS newsletter, Firework, and was updated 12/15/99. It is copyright ? 1999 Women in the Fire Service, Inc., and may not be reproduced in any form without specific written permission from WFS.
|