What happens when women thrive in fire

Prominent women from across fire management in North America and Australia came together to share stories of what has helped or hindered their careers, and what still needs to be done to enable them to thrive.

By Communications Officer Amy Mulder from the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC. This article was first published in Issue Four 2019 of Fire Australia. 

The fire and land management sector has engineered shifts in gender diversity over the last few decades that have allowed many women’s careers to thrive. Despite this progress, challenges persist, including internal processes of unconscious bias and structural problems, such as the lack of private, comfortable spaces for women to breastfeed.

A shared livestreamed panel discussion was held as part of the 6th International Fire Behaviour and Fuels Conference this year between Sydney and Albuquerque, through the International Association of Wildland Fire. The panel ‘What happens when women thrive—a life and a career in fire’ saw prominent women from academic and operational backgrounds, at different stages of their lives, share their experiences of what helped or hindered their careers.

The Sydney panel was moderated by Bronnie Mackintosh, Training Officer, Fire and Rescue New South Wales. Panellists included:

• Dr Mika Peace, Research Scientist, Bureau of Meteorology and Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC
• Erika Lind, Prescribed Fire Planning Officer, Forest Fire Management Victoria
• Allison Donovan, District Manager, Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, Western Australia

In Albuquerque, Dr Tamara Wall from the Desert Research Institute, and Tami Parkinson from the US Forest Service, moderated the discussion with the panellists:

• Annie Benoit, National Wildfire Coordinating Group Training Specialist
• Maria Sharpe, Fire Science and Information Manager, Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre
• Michelle Walker, Deputy State Director-Support Services, Bureau of Land Management Idaho State Office
• Deanne Shulman, retired, US Forest Service

The panel session opened with an acknowledgement of the complementary sets of skills both women and men bring to teams.

“This panel is a discussion about the value of those skills and perspectives, and successes that can result for all, when women thrive in their fire careers,” said US host Tami Parkinson.

Reflecting on strengths and skills women bring to teams, Allison Donovan also spoke of the difficulty in recognising her own personal strengths as she shared how the tragic impacts of the Black Cat Creek Fire became an opportunity to recognise how her strengths contributed to the recovery of the community.

“The aftermath of this event was really when my true strengths were needed by my team,” said Ms Donovan.

She called upon skills including empathy, listening and understanding when engaging with lots of different people—staff, families and extended families—on the path to recovery.

“Many of these traits are often referred to as soft skills and can generally be attributed to the sorts of skills that women bring.

“I never really imagined that being a woman would help me get through a situation like this,” Ms Donovan said.

For Dr Mika Peace, the difficulty in recognising her strengths was tempered by the support and confidence from supervisors, which was critical to her decision to do a PhD in fire weather and fire behaviour.

Dr Peace said the phenomenal support from her supervisors and the CRC made the decision easy.

“I went to the 2012 Perth AFAC conference with a seven-month-old child and gave a presentation there, and actually won an award for that presentation—the speaker award,” said Dr Peace.

There is still a way to go though. Dr Peace called for changes in workplaces to make breastfeeding an easy reality for women. In providing a private, comfortable and clean space for women to express milk or breastfeed, organisations can better support mothers returning to work and, ultimately, benefit families.

Breastfeeding and workplaces are often incompatible, but Dr Peace thinks this can change by leveraging the existing strengths of the industry.

“It shouldn’t be that hard. We are operational organisations. We are really good at logistics,” said Dr Peace. “We should be able to find a better solution for the next generation of women.”

Albuquerque panellist Annie Benoit also shared her experience breastfeeding as a working mum in fire.

“I would pump on prescribed fires and fires and go to great lengths to orchestrate and make it all work,” said Ms Benoit.

“It’s been a great career but definitely having a family and working full time in fires can be a challenging road. I’m very grateful: it’s forced me to come up with some creative solutions to make it all work.”

Among the moving stories of strength, support and struggle was the theme of unconscious bias as a persistent barrier to women’s careers thriving in fire.

Erica Lind explained that language is part of this, and how witnessing even subtle comments can have an accumulative effect on those who people may assume are unaffected bystanders.

“We can all play a part in calling out those subtleties, particularly among peers—which can be really uncomfortable sometimes—but just think of the minority, them having to do that is even scarier,” Ms Lind said.

She explained that a safe culture will ensure women can participate in robust conversations and ultimately contribute their potential to the organisations.

The panel discussion provided conference delegates with valuable insights into moments of both struggle and gratitude at points of varied careers.

Alen Slijepcevic, President of the International Association of Wildland Fire, said the panel session was one of his conference highlights.

“The panel provided great discussions and personal stories from female colleagues in Australia, the US and Canada. The words that come to mind are passion, caring, intelligence, clarity and thoughtfulness, but also hurt, sacrifice and self-doubt,” Mr Slijepcevic said.

“It taught us that we need to think more about our biases. We also heard how important the Male Champions of Change are in changing culture and providing opportunities for women,”
he said.

The IAWF 6th International Fire Behaviour and Fuels Conference was hosted by the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC, with the support in Sydney from the Bureau of Meteorology and the NSW Rural Fire Service.