INTRODUCTION Gender inclusivity has become an important aspect of today’s society with a greater push than ever before to bring more women into the workforce and have them being treated as equals. This push has resulted in more women than men graduating with college degrees, the military lifting barriers on women being involved in direct ground combat, and the recent passing of California’s Fair Pay Act. The California Fair Pay Act bars employers from setting wages for any of its employees at rates lower than those paid to employees of the opposite sex for similar work—not only for equal work—and applies to people who work at different offices for the same employer (Vara, 2015). However, despite the recent successes and advances women have enjoyed within the workforce as a whole, the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics found that women accounted for only 5.7% of all career firefighters in 2014, which is less than half the next closest …show more content…
The purpose of this project is to determine why more women are not working and/or volunteering in the fire service. This paper uses a descriptive research method to answer the following research questions: 1. Why do women not join the fire service in greater numbers? 2. Are there particular barriers that prevent women from joining the fire service? 3. What are the best ways to recruit and maintain women in the fire service? Hopefully, this project will influence those who make the final decisions regarding hiring policies, outreach into the community, and the work life of the fire service to make progressive changes through the implementation and enforcement of more accepting policies, procedures, and