- Title:
-
Gender and Firefighter Training
- Date:
- April 2004
- Organisations
- MFB
- Authors:
- Dr Sue Lewis
- Location:
- Victoria, VIC, Australia
Overview
Gender and fire fighting training is the second of three reports examining gender issues in fire services, here and internationally. This report looks at gender issues in training programs and should be read in conjunction with the first report Gender and Fire Fighting.
- Overview of firefighter recruit training issues
- UK equality and fairness reviews of firefighter training
- The London Fire Brigade Model
- Victoria Police moving to TAFE/University providers of training
- Gender issues in training programs
- Background skills not valued
- Military and adult learning balance
- Social cohesion vs task cohesion
- Protecting your patch’
- Accusations of favouritism
- Summary of local MFB findings
- Overall issues
- Specific issues for the women recruit fire-fighters
- Fitting -in
A key finding of the report was most cultural processes in firefighter training appear to have relied more on assimilation and less on accommodation, whereby a person who joins the group changes their beliefs and actions to fit those of the group, rather than the group changes its beliefs and actions to accommodate a new member.
The strong emphasis on fitting-in and loyalty to the group and its informal rules can lead to problems when these informal rules override formal rules.
The report concludes with a number of recommendations for the MFB.
Related documents
Gender and Fire Fighting
This is the first report from the MFB on Gender Issues
Gender and Firefighter Selection and Recruitment
This is the third report from the MFB on Gender Issues
