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Playing with fire

Gender at work and the Australian female cultural experience within rural fire fighting

University of Western Sydney, y.maleta{at}uws.edu.au

This article considers the roles, identities and experiences of female emergency services volunteers, most of whom are active fire fighters, within a regional brigade of the NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS). It is based on interviews and explores how women both adapt to and resist the culture and in the process are transforming it. RFS women were motivated by values of camaraderie, skill and community participation. Their experiences were informed by inclusion and exclusion, and the complex association of gender and competence with physical strength and leadership. Drawing upon the Foucauldian insight that power is never simply repressive but productive and relational, the findings demonstrate how women actively negotiate their position as a collective and as individuals within a mixed gender environment. This article concludes that the demonstrated prowess and agency of women within a non-traditional work context is changing and transforming the cultures and practices of rural fire fighting.

Key Words: Emergency Services • hegemonic masculinity/femininity • regional contexts • volunteers

Journal of Sociology, Vol. 45, No. 3, 291-306 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/1440783309335647


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