Emily Bowsher and Tanesha Manley plan to present the book “Send a Girl! The True Story of How Women Joined the FDNY” to the Lima Public Library in honor of the two responding to a call together on Sept. 17, becoming the city’s first women-only fire crew.
Jessica Orozco | The Lima News
LIMA
In a field dominated by men, women have their sights set on change at fire departments across the region.
Emily Bowsher and Tanesha Manley, both firefighter-paramedics, are the fourth and fifth women on the Lima Fire Department, and they’re the only two to have worked together on the same shift. The department is “built on tradition,” but Bowsher said diversity of thought will come with people of all backgrounds joining up.
Manley said although she is still new to the department and doesn’t know what needs to change, through trainings she has attended with other female firefighters she has seen the advantages of hiring more women in the field.
“It was neat to see how many female firefighters were at other departments, and I would like to see that (in Lima),” Manley said.
The Lima Fire Department has 70 firefighters, paramedics and Emergency Medical Technicians. Of the 70, 68 are men, and two are women, with 65 being white and five people of color.
Bowsher said the first female firefighter on the department was Nancy Gustin, in the 1990s. She was followed in 2009 by Crystal Plumpe, who is now a battalion chief at the Bath Township Fire Department. The third woman did not make it past probation, Bowsher said.
Different paths
Manley joined the department in August 2021 after she attended nursing school and received her EMT certification. She said she then received paramedic certification. She said LFD gave its firefighter exam while she was in EMT school, which she decided to take due to her training.
Manley said about a year and a half later, when she was not thinking about the job anymore, the department called her with a job offer, and she jumped at the opportunity.
Bowsher said she saw a job posting for the department on Facebook about six and a half years ago while she was a manager at Bittersweet Farms, which provides services for individuals with autism. She said she thought that she could be a firefighter for a long time and change positions throughout the department.
Manley said at Lima Fire Department, the women are treated better than others that she talked to at a women in fire training in Orlando, Florida. She said there have been no incidents of harassment.
Bowsher, who was named firefighter of the year on Oct. 27 for her car seat inspection program, said she, like other female firefighters, has struggled with instituting changes in a field that strongly values tradition. She has, however, worked with the American Red Cross to provide smoke detectors in homes that don’t have them and sees a more welcoming environment to change.
Holly Recker, a volunteer firefighter for the Ottawa Fire Department and paramedic for Putnam County, said she got into the field about 10 years ago. She is a fourth-generation firefighter who works with people with whom she grew up.
Recker said she is the only woman at the Ottawa department and one of several female paramedics in Putnam County. She said she enjoys being around more women in EMS but has never experienced harassment at Ottawa.
Female firefighters across the country
As of 2020, the most recent year for which data is available, there were 17,200 female career and 720,400 female volunteer firefighters, according to the National Fire Protection Association. In total, there were 1,041,200 career and volunteer firefighters.
Despite increased efforts in diverse hiring, about 4,4% of career firefighters were female as of 2020, according to the NFPA.
Women can face misogyny in a field dominated by men, oftentimes experiencing various forms of harassment. In a study published in 2019, 37.5% of female fighters reported verbal harassment. Almost 13% reported written harassment, almost 17% reported hazing, 37.4% reported unwanted sexual advances and 5.1% reported assaults in the workplace.
Female firefighters also faced increased risks, with 27% of firefighter pregnancies ending in miscarriages, according to a 2018 study.
“The lack of scientific data on the impact of occupation-specific hazards on reproductive health have been cited as limiting fair employment policies and employee rights as early as three decades ago and as negatively impacting recruitment and retention among women firefighters,” the authors wrote.
Exposure to toxic chemicals such as carbon monoxide can result in miscarriages, birth defects, slowed fetal development and can impede brain development, according to the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics.
Working with women
The Lima Fire Department has three stations — the Central Station, Station 3 and Station 6. Both Bowsher and Manley work out of the Central Station but on different 24-hour shifts.
Bowsher said when she trained and was hired for the job, she was the only woman. While she felt some camaraderie with firefighter Jordan Pughsley, a man with whom she attended high school, it wasn’t the same as having another woman to talk to and work with.
“There’s something about having another woman here that gets it,” Bowsher said.
Manley said when she first joined the department, she felt uncomfortable and nervous about talking to the men who worked there.
This was something she never experienced with Bowsher.
“If I have questions about something, I feel like it’s easier to just go to Emily and talk to her and ask questions,” Manley said. “… It was just easier to talk to her just because she could relate to me.”
Women in fire trainings
Both Manley and Bowsher have attended female-specific trainings, and Manley said she learned an easier way in which to throw a ladder up to a window that made more sense for her body mechanics. It’s likely helpful for most firefighters, regardless of sex.
Bowsher said they learned skills and techniques, rather than brute force. She said these trainings had mostly female instructors who could understand them more and provide a more comfortable environment, free of competition of attendees feeling the need to prove themselves.
Manley said in fire school, she felt judged by some of the men there, believing they were doubting that she could keep up. She said at the female-specific trainings, she felt that no one was looking at her or judging her so she could better concentrate on learning.
Recker said she was trained in firefighting by men, and she’s had to adapt her techniques to fit her body mechanics. She said female-specific training could help show how women can get the same job done.
Value of female firefighters
Bowsher said she has struggled to feel confident and “good enough” as a firefighter. She said as a woman, she feels like she has to perform at the top of her game to be “at the mediocre level” and match the performance of her male coworkers.
After she was recognized as firefighter of the year, Bowsher said she thought, “Oh, OK, I guess I’m doing an OK job.” She said it showed her that her performance exceeded how she had perceived it.
Bowsher and Manley plan to present the book “Send a Girl! The True Story of How Women Joined the FDNY” by Jessica Rinker, depicting Brenda Berkman, the first female firefighter at the New York Fire Department, to the Lima Public Library in honor of the two responding to a call together on Sept. 17 and being the city’s first women-only fire crew.
Recker said more women should join the field, and there is no need to be nervous to join a male-dominated field.
“There’s challenges, but they can always be overcome,” Recker said.
