News

Female Firefighters Remain Few in Number in Iowa

Rick Smith

11/25/2011

Nov. 25--CEDAR RAPIDS -- Amy Kunkel joined the Cedar Rapids Fire Department three years ago and today remains the newest member on a short list of 10 women who have served as a city firefighter here since the department hired its first female firefighter in 1986, 25 years ago.

The city now has more female firefighters on the department at one time than ever before -- six. That's six of a total of 144 firefighters, or 4.17 percent of the force.

In short, the record number of Cedar Rapids female firefighters is no sign of a female revolution at the firehouse -- here or, for that matter, across the country.

In Iowa City, which hired its first female firefighter in 1977, four of 64 firefighters or 6.25 percent are female; in Dubuque, four of 89 or 4.5 percent are female; and in Davenport, 6 of 139 or 4.32 percent are female.

The physical demands of the job, no doubt, have played a role in the profession remaining largely a male one, and because of that, it is a cause for notice when a department like the Cedar Rapids Fire Department changes the physical ability test it gives to those competing to become firefighters.

Will the new test become a barrier to women competing to become firefighters?

Assistant Cedar Rapids Fire Chief Greg Smith, as big and as fit as a Chicago Bears linebacker, says the Cedar Rapids department has adopted the new test, called the Candidate Physical Ability Test or CPAT, because it is a nationally licensed and sanctioned physical fitness test used by fire departments across the country. The Iowa City, Dubuque and Davenport fire departments all now use the CPAT for new firefighter candidates as do departments in Waterloo, Clinton and Muscatine.

Smith and 130-pound firefighter Amy Kunkel agree that the new pass-fail CPAT test -- which Kunkel has successfully mastered and which she will help administer to Cedar Rapids firefighter candidates -- does not pose a bigger impediment to female candidates and is not a test that can't be passed by males or females if they prepare and practice.

"... If you want this job, whether you're male or female, you're going to prepare yourself," says Kunkel, 34. " ... You're going to do whatever you have to do to complete (the test), if the job is important enough to you."

First, though, females have to apply.

In 2010, only three females were among 119 people who submitted applications to become a Cedar Rapids firefighter. Only two of those made it into the top 50 candidates after the written test, and both of those did not pass the physical ability test that is now being replaced by the CPAT, according to Heath Halverson, a manager in the city's Human Resources Department.

In Iowa City, Karen Jennings, the city's human resources director, reports that only two women were in the group of about 70 who passed the written test for firefighter in 2010, but only one of the two passed the CPAT test to qualify for an interview. That female, Sadie McDowell, was hired in June as the department's fourth female firefighter, Jennings reports.

Nonetheless, Iowa City Fire Chief Andy Rocca says female firefighters continue to increase their presence in the fire service, in part, by moving up in the ranks, he says.

One of Iowa City's four female firefighters is a commander, Lt. Tina McDermott, who joined the department in 2000, while in Cedar Rapids, one of six female firefighters is a commander, Capt. Emma Pulver, who joined the department in 1988.

The best female example in Iowa of moving up the ranks in the fire service is Lynn Washburn-Livingston, who became the fire chief in Davenport on Oct. 3 after nearly 30 years of service at the Rockford, Ill., Fire Department.

Washburn-Livingston points to a 2008 report by two social scientists and two civil rights lawyers, "A National Report Card on Women in Firefighting," to note that the Davenport, Cedar Rapids, Iowa City and Dubuque departments all beat the national departmental average for female firefighters, which is 3.7 percent.

Washburn-Livingston says the lack of female firefighters is not the result of any new physical ability test that applicants must pass, but, instead, is the result old thinking that is not so easy to change.

"In many cases, women still don't understand that firefighting is an opportunity for them," says Washburn-Livingston. "There are still thoughts in a lot of people's heads that women can't do it. (And women) do have to understand when they are coming into a service like this, it is male-dominated, and there are just some women who aren't willing to work in that kind of atmosphere. It does take a very strong personal character in an atmosphere where it is (mostly) men."

Cedar Rapids' Kunkel is a portrait of perseverance, which she says has been required of men and women trying to secure a firefighting job at the Cedar Rapids Fire Department in the last decade during a time of relatively little hiring and plenty of competition for openings.

Kunkel, who worked as a paramedic for the Area Ambulance Service, applied four times from 2002 until 2008 to become a Cedar Rapids firefighter -- she passed the physical test three of four times -- but didn't get hired until 2008.

In 2008, she qualified under the department's previous physical ability test for firefighter candidates, and she says the new CPAT test, while perhaps a little more challenging, is fairer and truer to the physical challenges that confront firefighters.

The new test consists of eight tasks: stair climb, ladder raise and extension; hose drag; equipment carry; forcible entry; search; rescue drag; and ceiling pull. All are done carrying a 50-pound weighted vest except for the stair climb, where the vest is weighted with 75 pounds.

Kunkel volunteered to try out the new CPAT test and she has qualified to be a test proctor for candidates who will take the test.

"In our job, we are sent into dangerous, hazardous environments, we are subjected to physically taxing things every day," explains Kunkel. "And I want to be part of and know that men and women beside me going into a house fire are going to be able to do the job they need to do. I'm invested in this. It's important to me. It's my life. It's my crew's life."

Washburn-Livingston says there are women out there who want to become firefighters, but she says departments need to work at letting them know when there are job openings not only in the city where they live but in cities across Iowa and outside of Iowa.

It's hard to imagine a poster girl to better make the case than Kunkel.

"Since I can remember," says Kunkel, "I wanted to be firefighter, (I wanted) to do something that would allow me to help people, to physically challenge myself every day and really to be part of a team. Which is probably the most fun part of this job -- getting to work with a bunch of great men and women."