Fighting fires or fighting male hegemony?

The United Firefighters Union is of course full of good comrades. I met a number of the brothers the second time I was invited to Australia to research firefighters and equality. They defend firefighters throughout the state and are part of the worldwide union of firefighters. Nonetheless, do they ever consider why it is that the firefighters they defend are mostly male (about 97 per cent) and almost exclusively white? The UFU may argue that they defend equality but do they ever question why there are so few women in the fire service? Or could they expand on why it is that most women who join the fire service are likely to witness sexual harassment (in Australia, the UK or America)?

I applaud Melbourne for trying to make a difference and hoped that more women in the fire service would do so too. But it is no surprise that they don’t. Most of them are probably trying to keep their heads down to fit in: trying to avoid the spotlight that identifies them as different and makes them the subject of special attention. That’s why it is that men win in these circumstances. Not because they are right. But because they think they are right and who questions the hero who is a firefighter?

When a group of men find themselves challenged in this way, when their whole identity is threatened, then one has to suggest that arguments and training for them to see things differently have failed.

Apart from the actual morality of a statistic that shows almost all firefighters are male and white there is also a safety message here too. Having a workforce that represents the community allows firefighters to reach out to prevent fires in communities that may actually benefit from some assistance in fire and accident prevention. Until new approaches are found to delivering the equality message then this response (by men and women) is almost inevitable.

It may be false consciousness but to the firefighters who have responded to the current debate on Melbourne Fire Brigade’s attempt to make their workforce more representative of the community (and for most of them that I have interviewed throughout the world) their argument is right and becomes true in its consequence.