Status Report

One of the many functions of Women in the Fire Service is to maintain current statistics on the numbers of women in firefighting. We have been researching and compiling this data for more than 25 years, and are the only agency in the U.S. to do so. This report covers suppression-trained women in the U.S. with career-level positions in structural firefighting (or, in the case of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, a combination of structural and wildland firefighting). It does not include volunteer firefighters, who are so numerous and spread out over so many thousands of fire departments that we would only be able to track them if each state collected its own data - which most do not. It also does not include wildland firefighters (other than those in CDF); we hope to improve our data collection in that area and eventually provide a comparable status report for that sector of the fire service. The total number of female firefighters and officers included in our current data is 5,848. Adding a conservative 5% to account for women not included in these statistics gives a current estimate of some 6,140 women active in career-level structural fire suppression in the U.S. Following is a state-by-state breakdown of the data, including the number of female firefighters in each state and the number who have been promoted to engineer, sergeant, lieutenant, captain, and chief. As a convenient shorthand, "chief" in the listings below designates any level of district chief, battalion chief, deputy chief, assistant chief, etc., while women at the top level of their department are listed separately as "chief of department." Where a disproportionate number of the women in a particular state work for a very few fire departments, that is also indicated. It should be noted that because different fire departments and different regions vary in their rank structures, exact comparisons are misleading. Some fire departments do not use the rank of captain; some others, particularly in California, do not have lieutenants. A captain, therefore, might be an engine company officer, a ladder company officer, or a station commander supervising one or more lieutenants. Following the state listings are summaries of the numbers of women officers, the top five states in terms of number of women firefighters, a list of fire departments with the highest percentages of women firefighters, and a list of the ten largest U.S. fire departments that employ no women firefighters at all. iWomen's data collection is always a work in progress. We gather it in many different ways: from our contacts with fire chiefs, from newspaper articles and press releases, and -- most importantly -- from our members and friends. We hope publishing this report will encourage iWomen's members and supporters to continue to help us update the information and keep it as current and accurate as possible. Alabama 46 women on 10 fire departments (28 of the 46 are on the Birmingham F.D.) 2 engineers, 4 lieutenants, 3 captains, 1 chief Alaska 14 women on 3 departments 2 engineers, 1 chief Arizona 116 women on 19 departments (81 of the 113 are on Phoenix & Tucson) 14 engineers, 3 lieutenants, 12 captains, 2 chiefs Arkansas 14 women on 6 departments (10 on Little Rock & North Little Rock) 1 chief of department California 1347 women on 136 departments (896 women on CDF, San Francisco, Los Angeles City & San Diego) 115 engineers (70 on CDF), 10 lieutenants, 60 captains, 15 chiefs, 7 chiefs of department Colorado 153 women on 26 departments (91 women on Colorado Springs, Denver, Aurora & Boulder) 5 engineers, 18 lieutenants, 4 captains, 2 chiefs Connecticut 62 women on 30 departments 1 engineer, 3 lieutenants, 1 chief of department Delaware 6 women on 1 department 1 captain District of Columbia 80 women on 1 department 5 sergeants, 3 lieutenants, 1 chief Florida 775 women on 115 departments (250 on Miami Dade County & Orange County) 20 engineers, 42 lieutenants, 12 captains, 13 chiefs, 3 chiefs of department Georgia 127 women on 28 departments 1 engineer, 7 lieutenants, 2 captains, 2 chiefs, 2 chiefs of department Guam 1 woman on 1 department Hawaii 10 women on 4 departments Idaho 2 woman on 2 departments Illinois 183 women on 66 departments (80 on Chicago) 2 engineers, 8 lieutenants, 1 captain, 1 chief, 1 chief of department Indiana 91 women on 31 departments 4 engineers, 4 lieutenants, 1 captain, 3 chiefs Iowa 38 women on 13 departments 2 lieutenants Kansas 31 women on 13 departments (12 on Topeka) 2 engineers, 4 lieutenants, 1 captain Kentucky 30 women on 14 departments 1 engineer, 2 lieutenants, 3 captains, 1 chief, 1 chief of department Louisiana 72 women on 11 departments (44 on Shreveport & Baton Rouge) 2 engineers, 1 lieutenant, 4 captains, 1 chief Maine 9 women on 8 departments 1 lieutenant Maryland 249 women on 7 departments (100 on Montgomery County) 1 sergeant, 5 lieutenants, 3 captains, 4 chiefs Massachusetts 84 women on 52 departments 4 lieutenants, 1 captain, 1 chief Michigan 150 women on 29 departments 4 engineers, 8 lieutenants, 3 captains, 2 chiefs Minnesota 95 women on 8 departments (70 on Minneapolis) 2 engineers, 16 captains, 1 chief Mississippi 25 women on 10 departments (10 on Jackson) 1 lieutenant, 5 captains Missouri 64 women on 27 departments 2 engineers, 7 captains, 2 chiefs, 1 chief of department Montana 9 women on 6 departments Nebraska 23 women on 5 departments (17 on Omaha) 1 engineer, 3 captains Nevada 61 women on 8 departments 3 engineers, 6 captains, 1 chief New Hampshire 14 women on 10 departments 1 chief New Jersey 19 women on 14 departments 1 lieutenant New Mexico 35 women on 11 departments (24 on Albuquerque & Bernalillo County) 1 engineer, 1 lieutenant, 1 chief, 2 chiefs of department New York 107 women on 31 departments (55 on New York City and Buffalo) 1 fire marshal, 3 lieutenants, 3 captains, 1 battalion chief North Carolina 133 women on 32 departments (61 on Charlotte, Durham & Raleigh) 5 engineers, 2 lieutenants, 13 captains, 4 chiefs, 1 chief of department North Dakota 5 women on 4 departments Ohio 208 women on 63 departments 13 lieutenants, 6 captains, 2 chiefs, 2 chiefs of department Oklahoma 34 women on 7 departments (17 on Oklahoma City) 4 captains, 1 chief Oregon 74 women on 16 departments 2 engineers, 3 lieutenants, 1 captain, 2 chiefs Pennsylvania 32 women on 11 departments (10 on the City of Pittsburgh) Puerto Rico 2 woman on 2 departments 1 lieutenant Rhode Island 20 women on 8 departments (13 on Providence) South Carolina 35 women on 19 departments 1 lieutenant, 1 captains, 1 chief, 1 chief of department South Dakota 4 women on 2 departments Tennessee 97 women on 20 departments (46 on Memphis & Chattanooga) 10 engineers, 4 lieutenants, 2 chiefs Texas 324 women on 49 departments (144 on Houston & Dallas) 18 engineers, 9 lieutenants, 7 captains, 9 chiefs, 3 chiefs of department Utah 20 women on 9 departments 4 captains, 1 chief Vermont 2 women on 2 departments Virginia 234 women on 26 departments 1 engineer, 11 lieutenants, 3 captains, 2 chiefs, 2 chiefs of department Washington 204 women on 30 departments (121 on Seattle & Tacoma) 1 engineer, 11 lieutenants, 4 captains, 3 chiefs, 1 chief of department West Virginia 16 women on 5 departments Wisconsin 129 women on 30 departments (76 on Madison & Milwaukee) 2 engineers, 11 lieutenants, 1 captain, 3 chiefs, 1 chief of department Wyoming 1 woman on 1 department,1 company officer Total women in promoted positions Engineers: 221 Fire Marshals: 2 Sergeants: 6 Lieutenants: 202 Captains: 195 Chiefs (other than top-level chief): 87 Chiefs of department: 34 Top states by number of women firefighters California: 1297 Florida: 775 Texas: 324 Maryland: 249 Virginia: 234 Urban fire departments (more than 75 career personnel) with the highest percentages of women firefighters Minneapolis, Minnesota: 17% Madison, Wisconsin: 15% San Francisco: 15% Boulder, Colorado: 14% Miami Dade County, Florida: 13% Several other fire departments have percentages of women firefighters in the 9 - 11% range. Largest fire departments with no women firefighters Elizabeth, New Jersey Bayonne, New Jersey Garden Grove, California Allentown, Pennsylvania Women fire chiefs As of July 2007, there were at least 35 career-level or combination (i.e., with some career and some volunteer personnel) U.S. fire agencies whose top-level chief was a woman. Department Chief Number of Career Personnel Davis, California Rose Conroy 40 Prince William Co., Virginia Mary Beth Michos 218 Rosenberg, Texas Kathy Hutchens 30 Naval Surface Warfare Center, Virginia Carol Shelton unk. Madison, Wisconsin Debra Amesqua 270 Cobb County, Georgia Rebecca Denlinger 600 Isle of Palms, South Carolina Ann M. Graham 30 Harlan, Kentucky Linette Hutchison 3 Pecan Grove FD, Richmond, Texas Kathy L. Golden 1 Forest Park, Ohio Patricia Brooks 24 Bernalillo County, New Mexico Bett Clark 105 Bolivar City, Missouri Patty Head 1 Steubenville, Ohio Terri Kovach 40 Carmel-by-the-Sea, California Sidney Reade unk. Woodhaven, Michigan Janet R. Sykes unk. Harlan City, Kentucky Linette Hutchison 3 East Point, Georgia Rosemary Cloud 110 N.C. Army National Guard Air Facility Salisbury, North Carolina Crystal Linn unk. Little Rock, Arkansas Rhoda Mae Kerr 391 San Francisco, California Joanne Hayes-White 1,800 Chennault Int. Airport, Louisiana Charlene Miller unk. Berkeley, California Debra Pryor 140 Monterey Park, California Cathleen Orchard 60 Longwood Fire Rescue, Florida Laurie Mooney 40 Milpitas, California Clare Frank 80 Independence, Missouri Sandra Schiess 160 Seminole County, Florida Leeanna Raw 300 Tallahassee, Florida Cindy Dick 249 U.S. Army Garrison, Camp Zama, Japan Julie Thixton unk. Pampa, Texas Kim Powell 27 Ridgefield, Connecticut Heather Burford 29 San Diego, California Tracy Jarman 900 St. Johns, U.S. Virgin Islands Winifred Powell unk. Puyallup, Washington Ruth Obadal 59 Canton, Illinois Bonnie Cremer 16