Last week, MetroWest Daily News posted a story about female firefighters in our region. The piece focused on how “Challenges remain, but conditions have improved”.
Although only 18.5% of Southborough’s firefighters are women, it’s a big step up from the days of old, and, according to reporter Norman Miller, “something of an anomaly”.
It is apparently double the share of recent nationwide stats.
The article highlights:
As of 2020, about 9% of the nation’s firefighters — 89,600 — are women, according to the National Fire Protection Association. Of those, 17,200 were full time.
As for Southborough, Miller writes:
Five of the town’s 27 firefighters on staff are women, including Lt. Brittaney Doane, who has been with the department 10 years.
She said along with the “culture” of women being accepted by male counterparts, the equipment is finally catching up.
“Station pants and even boots didn’t come in the correct size,” she said. “A lot of it was just tailored to fit men. I would say, probably in the last couple of years, a lot of the everyday station wear has improved.”
You can read about that and old issues related to sleeping accommodations and contracts (plus interviews with female firefighters in other towns in our region) here.
The story also includes a great photo featuring firefighter Christina Stapleton, probationary firefighter Tiffany Martinez, firefighter Meg Mulcahy, Lt. Brittaney Doane, and firefighter Tabitha Conway.
As long as I’m sharing the story, I’d be remiss in not noting that on April 29th, the SFD shared their remembrance of the loss of one of their female firefighters in 2022:
We pause today to remember our fallen sister, FF Lisa Thompson, who passed two years ago. We’re thinking of Lisa’s family and friends today. She will never be forgotten.
(Last week, they also remembered FF Kenneth Strong who passed away 9 years ago.)
