August 2026
Visit my Medium Site.
Welcome to 2026!
Dr Merilyn Childs, Honorary Professor, Latrobe University
I never expected to be updating this Blogger site 20 years after my original work in 2005-2006 and the last update I did over a decade ago in 2013 (below). But who can resist the amazing encouragement by Senior Firefighter Leanne Allen, Indigenous woman (Secwepemc) and Workplace Inclusion Practitioner?
I was a lot younger then, but also more cautious. For good reason. Twenty years ago I had hope for change. I was building my academic career, learning my craft, learning to be 'in the public eye', was less likely to call things as I saw them (the researcher in me) and was tentative in my approach to the whole 'women and firefighting agenda'. I had to compromise and not refer to 'diversity' because honestly in 2005 that would have blown the sector's minds! I was keen to draw women and men into this 'new' agenda, foster 'voice' and agency amongst female firefighters, and decenter myself. I didn't use words like sexism, misogyny, bullying....or WTAF. Not then.
Wow, what a Big Idea it was at the time!: that women might be firefighters. (lol). Even so, I recall, despite my careful approach, a male member of the UFU writing a letter to the editor in Tasmania that my 'social engineering' was not welcome in the fire services (c 2006). I recall an absolute pile-on by the UFU about daring to hold a women and firefighting conference, see my links on this site to explore.
During the 2006 Women in Firefighting Conference a radio journalist interviewed me about the OMG radical (sigh) idea that women might be paid firefighters. He quipped, as our interview ended, something like 'at least fire trucks have big mirrors so the women can put on their makeup'. Dickhead! I yell back through the years!
So, why now?
The thing is I have less time ahead of me than I have behind me. I want to update my legacy, and I have a voice that I am not afraid to use. Twenty years after I wrote my original article Counting Women In the Australian Fire Services (peer reviewed) rather shockingly I recently found when I updated the study in July 2026 (self published) that almost nothing has changed. Oh yes, lots of virtue signalling. But not real change. Discussion about % of women in paid firefighting roles, is not the key point, but it is reflective of a malaise in the sector. Nowadays I would argue that this malaise is not disconnected to what is going on in the AFL (Swans) controversy in the news right now, in August 2026.
I figured it's time I cycled back around and asked some hard questions of the fire services agencies, which I could not do in 2006. I wanted to give them time to change. They haven't, not substantially as so many studies since then have shown, and despite the brilliant work of WAFA, Girls on Fire and many legends across the years burnt and on fire in diversity roles, such as the amazing Steve O'Malley AFSM. They stayed while I pottered off to do my academic thing, with an eye on the sector and agenda always, but at a (necessarily) safe distance. I used to complain to the ABC about their use of 'firemen' every time I heard it, and one day noticed no-one did this anymore in public, except rarely.
Nowadays, I write using Medium. I'm actually amazed Blogger is still here and working! (it's clunky). So I plan to write there. I will also be posting data from 2005-2006 in Medium to reflect the changes that have taken place in the research world since 2006 to make data open, accountable and accessible, per open science guidelines NHMRC 2025.
I want to apologise to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. In 2005-2006 I did not include risks to you in my ethics application at Western Sydney University. I did not seek to hear your voices. I did not ask your permission to include mention of you in Wikepedia when I updated the history of women in firefighting there, and am currently reviewing what I wrote so many years ago to ensure it is culturally safe.
To all: feel free to head over to Medium to follow me there.
March 2013
Welcome to the Women in Fire Fighting Australia- Archives of
Dr Merilyn Childs. More an archive than a Blog, this digital repository aims to share materials I have collected over time with those interested in the history of female fire fighters.
Although most of my time is spent thinking about digital futures, I continue to have interest in gender and disasters, and in the social histories and industrial experiences of female fire fighters in Australia.
This Blog is under development (March 2013) and, as I do the work in my spare time, creating this archive is a progress of passion, not time. Please bookmark this site, and visit again. I am keen to develop a visual history of female fire fighters, so please contact me if you have images (including copyright permission to use) you'd like me to use.If you are looking for Women and Fire Fighting Australasia Inc visit http://www.wafa.asn.au//
Cheers,
Merilyn Childs
Not to be copied or reproduced without permission of the NEGS Archives Centre.
