ABSTRACT

This chapter aims to show how the gender-related bias frustrated any opportunities for change presented by the Service’s Equal Opportunity Policy. It identifies those processes which ensured that dominant, white male interests remained protected and existing patterns of power were unchanged. The chapter draws the material from a range of exploratory techniques including participant observation, documentary evidence, attendance at meetings and training sessions, but most particularly from 25 in-depth interviews with fire officers from all levels in the Service. It explains processes of the mobilisation of gender bias within the Fire Service, which effectively made women ‘out of place’. In the words of a Divisional Commander, ‘Women in the Fire Service are looked at in the same way as with a problem person, in other words they are treated as different and that is the problem’. Within the Northshire recruitment process the Fire Service encouraged applicants to visit fire stations as a measure of their initiative and commitment.