Many other women were in the fire service before 1974. The earliest were volunteer firefighters in urban and small-town settings, who date back to the 1800's at least. Women have also worked as fire lookouts since the early 1900's and, beginning in the mid-1970's, as seasonal firefighters in the wildland sector. In the U.S., around 5,200 women currently work as full-time, career firefighters and officers. Several hundred hold the rank of lieutenant or captain, and about 60 are district chiefs, battalion chiefs, division chiefs, or assistant chiefs.
Women are firefighters outside the U.S. as well.
Women firefighters can also be found in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Germany, France, the Netherlands, South Africa, Panama, Costa Rica, Trinidad and Tobago, Chile, and Brazil. Women have served as chiefs of volunteer fire departments since at least the 1930's. While numbers of volunteer firefighters are, as noted above, difficult to obtain, there are certainly more than 125 female volunteer fire chiefs active in the U.S. at any given time. See our honor roll for more information. The barriers that confront fire service women in the early 2000's are the same ones that face any traditionally excluded group beginning to make inroads in a new workplace.