Women in the Fire Service: Breaking Barriers in 2026

The Numbers in 2026

In the United States, women represent 9% of all firefighters, according to the National Fire Protection Association. Of the roughly 89,600 female firefighters nationwide, 17,200 serve in career departments and 72,400 serve as volunteers.

That 9% figure masks a significant gap between career and volunteer firefighting. Women hold only 5% of career firefighter positions, while their representation in volunteer departments is closer to 11%. In a profession that employed 344,900 people in 2024 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, these percentages translate to a workforce that remains overwhelmingly male.

For context, women represent 47% of the total U.S. labor force. The fire service's 5% career representation is not just low — it is one of the widest gender gaps in any public safety profession. And unlike law enforcement, which has seen women's representation climb to roughly 13%, the fire service has moved slowly.

How We Got Here: A Brief History

Women have served in firefighting roles in the United States since the 19th century, though their contributions were largely erased from institutional memory. The modern story of women in the fire service begins in the 1970s, when the second-wave feminism movement led to legal challenges against employment bans that explicitly excluded women from firefighting.

The Berkman Case

In 1977, the Fire Department of the City of New York announced that women could take the entrance exam for the first time. Brenda Berkman, then a law student, was one of 90 women who took the physical portion — and all 90 failed. The test, as courts would later determine, was "the most difficult the department had ever administered" and was designed more to exclude women than to assess job-related ability.

Berkman filed a class-action lawsuit, Brenda Berkman, et al. v. The City of New York, challenging the test's validity. In 1982, a federal court ruled in her favor, ordering the development of a job-related physical test. Berkman and 40 other women passed the new exam and entered the FDNY fire academy — the department's first female firefighters.

Berkman went on to found the United Women Firefighters in 1982, served as a first responder during 9/11, and retired in 2006 at the rank of captain. Her legacy extends far beyond New York — the Berkman case established legal precedent that physical fitness tests must be demonstrably job-related, a principle that reshaped hiring across the fire service nationwide.

The Barriers That Persist

More than four decades after Berkman's lawsuit, women entering the fire service still face structural barriers that suppress recruitment and drive attrition. In September 2024, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) convened experts from across the public safety sector to identify and address these barriers. Their findings confirm what women in the service have been saying for years.

Personal Protective Equipment

Turnout gear has historically been designed around male body dimensions. NIOSH's research found that departments need to look beyond simply offering smaller gear sizes — body types vary across individuals, and PPE should be tailored to the individual user, regardless of sex. Ill-fitting helmets shift during operations. Turnout pants restrict mobility. Gloves designed for larger hands reduce dexterity. These are not comfort issues — they are safety issues that increase injury risk on the fireground.

NIOSH has launched a pilot project called "Advancing PPE Protection for Women Working in Hazardous Environments" to develop a framework for better PPE selection and sustainability for women across high-risk industries, including firefighting.

Facilities and Policies

Many fire departments operate out of stations built decades ago — facilities that were never designed for a mixed-gender workforce. The NIOSH expert meeting highlighted that many departments still lack separate dressing spaces, sleeping quarters, bathrooms, or appropriate lactation spaces for their female members. These facility gaps create daily friction that contributes to attrition.

Policy gaps compound the problem. Family-friendly policies — including provisions for pregnancy, parental leave, and adoption — vary widely across departments. Some departments have comprehensive policies; many have none at all. When women are forced to choose between starting a family and continuing their career, the fire service loses experienced personnel.

Workplace Culture

Cultural barriers remain the most difficult to quantify but may be the most consequential. A study published in the National Library of Medicine documented female firefighters' perceptions and experiences, finding persistent patterns of gender bias, underrepresentation in leadership roles, and isolation within their departments.

The hazing and hostility that Berkman and her peers experienced in the 1980s has not disappeared — it has evolved. Women report being passed over for assignments, excluded from informal mentorship networks, and subjected to scrutiny that their male counterparts do not face. When combined with PPE that does not fit and facilities that were not built for them, the message — whether intentional or not — is that they do not belong.

What Is Working

Despite these barriers, progress is happening. Several strategies have demonstrated measurable results in recruiting and retaining women in the fire service.

Targeted Recruitment

Departments that actively recruit women — through outreach at high schools and colleges, women-focused recruitment events, and social media campaigns featuring female firefighters — see higher application rates from women. The USFA's 2024 Recruitment and Retention Workgroup Report emphasized that recruitment efforts must be intentional and sustained, not one-time initiatives.

Mentorship Programs

Organizations like the International Association of Women in Fire & Emergency Services (iWomen) and Women in the Fire Service (WFS) provide mentorship, networking, and professional development specifically for women. These organizations connect women across departments, reducing the isolation that often drives attrition.

Physical Testing Reform

The legacy of the Berkman case continues to influence how departments design their physical ability tests. The standard that tests must be demonstrably job-related — meaning they must reflect actual fireground tasks — has led to more validated testing protocols. This does not mean lowering standards. It means ensuring that the standards being tested are the right ones.

Facility Modernization

Departments investing in station renovations and new construction are increasingly designing facilities with private sleeping quarters, individual changing areas, and dedicated lactation rooms. These investments pay dividends not just for women but for all personnel who benefit from improved privacy and living conditions during 24-hour shifts.

The Leadership Gap

Even as entry-level representation slowly increases, women remain severely underrepresented in fire service leadership. Female fire chiefs, battalion chiefs, and captains are rare. This creates a compounding problem: without women in leadership, the policies, cultural norms, and institutional priorities that affect women's experience in the service are shaped almost exclusively by men.

Departments that have promoted women to leadership positions report measurable improvements in recruitment, retention, and workplace culture. Representation at the top signals to prospective recruits that a career path exists — not just a job, but a trajectory.

The Career Opportunity

The fire service is not shrinking. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects 27,100 openings per year for firefighters over the next decade, driven by retirements and modest employment growth of 3% from 2024 to 2034. The median annual wage was $59,530 in May 2024, with career advancement opportunities into officer ranks, specialized units, and administrative leadership.

For women considering the profession, the opportunities have never been better — and the need has never been greater. Departments across the country are actively seeking to diversify their ranks, and the infrastructure of support organizations, mentorship programs, and legal protections is more robust than at any point in history.

What Needs to Happen Next

The data is clear on what moves the needle:

• PPE manufacturers must design for diverse body types. NIOSH's pilot framework should become the industry standard, not an experimental project.
• Departments must modernize facilities. Private sleeping quarters, individual changing areas, and lactation rooms should be baseline requirements for station design.
• Family-friendly policies must be standardized. Pregnancy, parental leave, and adoption policies should exist in every department, not be left to individual negotiation.
• Mentorship must be institutionalized. Informal networks are not enough. Departments should partner with organizations like iWomen and WFS to create structured mentorship programs.
• Leadership pipelines must be built. Departments should actively identify and develop women for promotion, ensuring that leadership reflects the workforce they are trying to build.

A Profession Worth Fighting For

The fire service asks its members to run toward danger when everyone else is running away. It asks them to train relentlessly, serve selflessly, and operate under conditions that would break most people. None of those qualities are gendered.

Women have been proving they belong in the fire service since Brenda Berkman walked into the FDNY academy in 1982 — and long before that, in ways that history failed to record. The question is not whether women can do this job. The question is whether the fire service is willing to remove the barriers that prevent more of them from doing it.

If you are a woman considering a career in the fire service, start with our guide on how to become a firefighter and explore our career resources. The path is challenging, but the profession — and the communities it serves — needs you.

For more on fire service careers, workforce trends, and the challenges facing today's firefighters, visit our blog.