Why aren’t there more women in fire engineering?

The lack of diversity in fire and rescue services tends to focus on the low number of women firefighters, but fire engineering is also heavily male-dominated.

You may have seen the social media story about Esme – the little girl who wanted to be a boy so she could become a firefighter. Earlier this year, London Fire Brigade helped launch a children’s book called My Mummy is a Firefighter which was a collaboration with a small social enterprise called Butterfly Books. The book is a part of a series whose aim is to tackle gender stereotyping in particular careers.

I was very pleased to spearhead this project on behalf of the brigade, but I am not a firefighter – I am an engineer. So you might ask why I became involved with this project? The reasons are numerous.

Read the full article on our digital issue, pages 34-35.

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