NFPA Journal - Spring 2021 - 48

Perspectives

six female firefighters and
10 male firefighters from our
local department. We could
see very obvious proportional, anthropometric
differences, especially in the
waist-to-hip ratio.

Experts say PPE for women needs to go beyond
simply downscaling designs for men, taking into
account body-type differences including hand
sizes and waist-to-hip ratios. GETTY IMAGES

done, about 80 percent of female firefighters reported experiencing issues with ill-fitting
personal protective equipment. That is four times
greater than the rate at which male firefighters
self-report fit issues. So they are certainly experiencing these issues at a much higher rate than
their male counterparts. We're not saying male
firefighters don't experience fit issues, but for
female firefighters it's at a much greater rate and
it's in different areas.

Is it dangerous for female firefighters to use
gear that doesn't fit?
Definitely. Female firefighters have a 33 percent
higher risk of injury compared to their male
counterparts, and ill-fitting PPE is certainly playing a role in that greater risk of injury and even
risk of fatality. They're not able to move as easily
or as quickly as they need to. That puts them at
greater risk.

nfpa.org/
perspectives
Read more
about the Fire
Protection Research
Foundation's
female firefighter
PPE project.

Are there PPE options currently marketed
toward women?
Since the 1990s, I would say, there have been
female-marketed garments, but it's mostly been
a simple downscaling of male patterns. It may be
the same design, which doesn't take into account
female proportions and body shape differences. I
recently published a study where we body-scanned

How is the current study
being conducted?
We're currently collecting
data via a questionnaire-
we're trying to hear from as
many female structural and
wildland firefighters as we
can from across the United
States. We have over 1,800
responses, so we've really cast
a wide net. We're collecting
data on the current sizing of
their gear, and their perceptions of comfort, mobility,
and fit. We're also asking
them what modifications, if
any, they currently make to
their gear and what impact that has. Later, we'll be
doing regional focus groups and three-dimensional
body scanning at locations across the country.
Why do you think this issue still hasn't been
addressed?
When you're a female coming into a male-dominated career, I can only imagine the last thing
you want to do is complain about your gear. Plus,
they're our heroes, right? They're not ones to
complain. So a lot of the time they just make do
and move forward like firefighters do.
What's your hope for the future?
First of all, I'm very happy about this project-
it finally gives female firefighters a voice and to
feel like they can express their concerns to us
in an anonymous questionnaire. We have a lot
of passionate female firefighters who are reaching out to us and letting us know they've faced
these challenges for 30 or 40 years, in some cases.
Our long-term goal is to take the sizing system
we develop from this project and create gear with
that system and put it into real-use conditions.
We want to be able to then measure the comfort,
mobility, and ease of movement associated with
that gear, and create products to get into the
hands of female firefighters so that their injury
risk is reduced.

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NFPA Journal - Spring 2021

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