Many Faces, One Purpose

When an organization moves away from a generations-long tradition of being all-male toward a future that includes men and women equally, a significant change takes place. Change can be upsetting and threatening to those who are used to, and invested in, the way things "have always been." Fire may know no gender, but people do, and the fire chief of the 1990's spends more time managing people than controlling fire. Increasing numbers of women are becoming firefighters and fire officers, entering and advancing in a field that is still heavily male by both population and tradition. Fire service leaders who are not prepared to manage these workforce changes may find their workforce is managing them instead. Fire chiefs used to feel comfortably progressive saying, "We'll hire anybody who meets our standards." But the underlying premise to that statement has now been challenged. How have those standards been set? Are they reasonable? Can all current members of the department meet them? What happens to someone who does meet the standards, but then faces a wall of hostility from their new coworkers? What support systems are available for those who are excluded from the privileges of the dominant group? What fire service leaders have learned, as first men of color and then women of color and white women have entered the field, is that policies that appear to be neutral, or policies that seem to apply equally to everyone, do not necessarily create equal opportunity. Altering the identity of people in a fundamentally unaltered workplace leaves the door open to friction, miscommunication and a host of interpersonal issues that can result in poor performance and a loss of teamwork, or worse. The commitment to equal opportunity in employment has evolved into a commitment to much more than that: to a workforce where diversity itself is valued. This book was developed to help the fire service leader manage the changing fire service workforce as it becomes progressively more inclusive of larger numbers of women in all ranks. It offers guidance and suggestions from people with experience and expertise, and provides choices and options more often than single "right" answers. The authors hope they have created a guide that, in calling on a wide range of resources, can be useful to a people with a wide range of needs.