ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses some length a recent experience in Sweden that challenged personally, before moving toward a final discussion about the remarkable resilience of gender regimes in the fire service. As global warming and international terrorism increase the risk of disasters worldwide, it is a considerable concern that first responders to these disasters from the fire service remain predominantly male. As the UK's first responder to disasters, fire-fighters provide multiskilled teams to attend, for example, structural and wild land fires, road traffic collisions, chemical spillages, and floods. This negative dynamic and the processes men use to reinforce it are examined below alongside the history of the employment of women in the UK fire service and examples from Australia and Sweden. However, it cannot conveniently be forgotten that male fire-fighters challenge everyone who joins their team, and the requirement that they prove themselves through the exclusionary practice of homosociality.
