Introduction
Differences at the workplace can either break or strengthen an institution depending on how they are treated and accommodated. “Diversity among men and women focuses beyond equal opportunities and promotes equal treatment towards all employees, including both men and women, as well as people from the minority groups.”
One of the most significant developments of this century is the sudden flowing in of women into the field of employment and positions that allow them equal responsibilities as men. The sudden change of events has been attributed to many social changes such as single parenthood and high divorce rates. The trend though well experienced in developed countries, it is yet to be so in upcoming economies. A culture which began in the United States in the 20th century has today enhanced and spread to many developed countries.
Diversity recognition is today a commonplace, even as the world gets smaller and smaller. The results are a better recognition for everyone regardless of their gender, race or cultural background. Leadership and management styles do differ between men and women, creating a labor market with more choices. Women are considered more relational, encouraging communication to explore solutions. Men on other hand are considered more action oriented, choosing to concern themselves more. The process of creating a common understanding enables an organization come up with more options for solving problems.
Rationale
This is a research paper, seeking to understand and discuss the benefits of gender diversity at the workplace and how far the firefighting industry has come in appreciating the trend. To understand the paper’s background, there will be a simple analysis of various gender diversity trends in different industries and regions, and why there is a variation.
Even with many countries and businesses recognizing the need and importance of gender diversity, it is yet to be so in many developing countries, and in the remote areas of developed regions. Many industries are yet to benefit from integrating the differences between men and women, as well as their different approaches to management and leadership. The paper will look at why this is so in the firefighting department, highlight important changes that have occurred in the past to encourage diversity, as well as those factors hindering a fully realized diversity among the firefighters.
Among the questions to be researched on include; how has the concept of gender diversity at work evolved over time? How has the firefighting industry reacted to the concept? How has it impacted the way business is done and how decisions are made in the department? Is gender diversity in the firefighting industry a genuine concern or is it a distraction from real problems at work? How does the industry differ from different professions and how is the situation in different parts of the world? What can be done to help appreciate the concept more and help the industry reap the benefits?
Literature review
Gender diversity continues to attract a significant level of debating even as the world shifts its trends to accommodate more women in the corporate world. In her book, Susan Jackson notes that women are the best and most common whistle blowers in organizations where things are not going right. She gives an example of a few organizations which have experienced different types of crises in the recent past. One of the organizations is the FBI, which has been accused of neglecting terrorism warnings just before the 911 attack.
Coleen Rowley, an employee with the agency for 21 years, blew the whistle over the matter. The author gives another example of Sherron Watkins, the vice president of Enron, who blew the whistle of the company’s large scale corporate abuse. Immediately after that, Cythia Cooper, Worldcom’s vice president of finance, blew the whistle about the company’s hypocritical accounting practices, which resulted in one of the largest bankruptcy in the county’s history. All these women have been named as Times persons of the year for bringing to the spotlight some of the most scandalous and unprofessional practices going on in big organizations.
In his book Powell Gary analyzes how far the world has come in addressing gender diversity at the workplace. The book takes the reader on a journey of gender diversity noting the most important times in the journey as the 20the century. The book highlights challenges that women face in trying to balance their responsibilities as mothers and their positions at work. He also argues that gender diversity benefits employers and helps them select employees from a bigger pool, increasing their ability to find top performers.
“While the lines between genders differences in the workplace are blurring, and while experiences are based on specific individuals involved, there are some differences in management techniques and attitudes that can be influenced by gender.” In their analysis of gender diversity in the boardroom, Renee and Daniel document significant correlations between the type of decisions and the gender diversity of corporates boards.
In their research involving 1024 publicly traded firms, “the results revealed that firms whose stocks had higher variability in returns had less women in their boards, while those with more diverse boards had more pay-performance incentives.” It was also evident that firms with more diverse boards held more meetings than the rest of the firms. The authors then conclude that board diversity has a significant effect on decisions made by corporates and their results.
In their study of gender diversity and its influence on growth, Dwyer, Orlando and Ken Chadwick examine a group of professionals composed of managers at all levels. The study reveals that gender diversity does affect the management of an organization, its strategic orientations and culture. The authors however note that a supportive organizational structure has to be in place before a company can fully reap the benefits of gender diversity. Yoder and Lynne’ article on the psychology of women quarterly, discuss how women exclusion affects the department and challenges facing women firefighters.
From the survey conducted by the authors, common challenges include hostility, lack of support, criticism and stereotyping. Harper’s book on women firefighters, and his view of both sexes at the workplace puts together a collection of views from both men and women in the firefighting department. Olson Garret’s case study of the Arizona fire department researches on the problem of gender diversity among firefighters, and develops recommendations for a recruitment plan that will stop discrimination and see more retention of female firefighters.
Most authors and research papers tend to agree on the fact that gender diversity has an effect on an organization’s performance. However, it is notable that not many authors address the fact that even in this century, women are still not well represented in some careers, a good example being firefighting. Those careers that have been for a long time been labeled as men’s, such as engineering and firefighting, still lack gender diversity.
For example, in the United States, women only make 10% of all firefighters even though they continue to play an important and sometimes invisible role in firefighting. The industry is still not willing to trust women with major responsibilities, evident by the ratios of men to women at the different levels of firefighting. Men and women portray different characteristics in leadership and when put together, organizations are able to reap the benefits of both.
Method and design
Part of this paper will include a well entailed research of the topic. Gender diversity is a topic of high interest among researchers and therefore, has a wide range of information. Data collection will be through study and analysis of past research projects. These include books, scholarly articles and online materials. Data on gender representation is easily available in gender based organizations and different governmental bodies. The firefighting department has a website that provides data of employees and volunteers in their department. Books and online articles will be used as the major sources of information.
Other sources of information for this paper will include interviews and consultations with different people in firefighting. Speaking to people at the middle and executive management level will ensure that the paper has real time information on how gender diversity, or lack of it, has impacted the department today. Consulting with experts in the field will help me get a professional perspective of the topic.
To test for my hypothesis, I intend to make variations in different departments in firefighting. Varying factors in the process of information collection will include field representation, gender balance at the office and variation in different age groups. These factors are intended to either confirm or disconfirm the hypothesis that gender diversity does affect the way operations in the industry are run and how different departments in firefighting perform. If for an instance firefighting in a gives state has improved by having a better gender representation, even after all other factors remained constant, then such an outcome confirms the hypothesis.
Organization and analysis
This paper will be organized into six parts. It will first introduce the subject of gender diversity in firefighting by looking at the origin and history of the concept. The concept of gender diversity among firefighters is not a new concept. It started in the late 19th century but became more popular in the 20th century.
The first female fire fighter in the United States was Molly Williams, who worked as a volunteer, but the first paid female fire fighter was Sandra Forcier who began working in the mid 1970s. “In 1982, Brenda Berkman filed a suit against the New York city with an argument that the fire fighting exam discriminated against women and she won the lawsuit becoming one of the 47 women who passed the revised physical test that year.”
During this period, women started fighting for a chance to do more than taking care of children and homes. For women who were not married and had to fend for their families, they could only access manual and low paying jobs. Since then, the number of women going to school, those involved in different industries and in executive levels continues to rise. “Today there are more than 10,000 permanently employed women fire fighters and fire officers in the United States, and more than 40,000 volunteers, paid-on-call, part time and seasonal women fire fighters.”
This part of the paper will also analyze how the trend varies in different regions. Susan Jackson’s book on diversity at the workplace will help understand the history of gender diversity in different fields of work. The International Association of Women in Fire and Emergency Service will give statistics on the history of women firefighters. Adams and Ferreira’s book on gender diversity in the boardroom will be used to understand how the presence or absence of women at work will affect decision making. Finally, the National Fire Academy paper will help understand what challenges women face during recruitment and training for the firefighting positions.
The second part of the paper will be literature review which will analyze the works and thoughts of different authors. From past study, it is clear that many authors agree with the importance of gender diversity in different organizations. Different authors and experts however argue that gender diversification on its own may not do much for an organization if other important structures are not in order. Literature reviewed will include lecture notes, books, scholarly journals, corporate and government publications, and online articles.
In her book, Susan Jackson notes that women are the best and most common whistle blowers in organizations where things are not going right and she gives an example of a few organizations which have experienced different types of crises in the recent past. The book will offer good examples of significant contributions made by women in leadership positions today.
In his book about gender in the urban fire service, Chetkovich offers insights on physical and mental challenges facing women firefighters. Harper presents the views of both sexes about gender diversity in his book about the views of males and females in the fire service. Government statistics from the National Fire Protection Association and the U.S Fire Administration will make it easy to understand how the trend has been in the past years, and how the statistics have changed over time.
The next part of the paper will be methodology, which will examine the data and information collected from different literature studies as well as interviews. The paper will examine different results and feedback to see if the information collected confirms the hypothesis or not. Analysis of the results will help give a clear picture of what the situation is in firefighting and how real the hypothesis is to them. It will also help understand why the industries has remained behind in ensuring equal representation for both men and women. In this part, government and institutional data libraries will be very significant.
The American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine’ findings on their journals will help understand performance difference between male and female firefighters. The U.S Fire Administration handbook will give insights on the differences between men and women practices at work. The US Department of Emergency Service publications will provide the recent statistics on the topic, as well as help understand modern challenges facing the department in their attempt to promote gender diversification. The Arizona case study by Olson gives a different perspective to the problem by addressing recruitment and retention.
The next part of the paper will be significance and recommendations. A review of the findings will help judge on whether the paper is significant to the topic. It will also help decide on whether the topic has any relevance in the society today. It will also be an outline of how the research can lead to a significant improvement over the past studies. It will explain the paper’s contribution to the field and why the concerns it raises should be addressed. Statistics from the National Fire Protection Association give a basis for measuring the extent of the problem.
From Yoder and Lynne’s article about different challenges for women from different races, it will be possible to put together challenges in the department and base recommendations on them. Powell’s book on gender diversity at the workplace will be a good basis to understand what needs to be addressed urgently, to solve problems arising from gender diversity. Dwyer and Orlando’s article in the journal of business research helps the reader look at the problem from a managerial perspective, a factor that will be put in consideration in the recommendations section.
Recommendations will be based in the results and findings, which will help establish areas that need to be addressed. From previous studies it is clear that overcoming challenges is one part of ensuring gender diversity at the firefighting department. By giving women equal opportunities, they have been able to prove themselves and many times they have even been better than their male counterparts. In attempt to prove their worth, women have improved their commitment to their careers, producing even better results than men in many occasions.
The most sought after character in firefighting is commitment and women have many times shown more of it, most of the times in an attempt to prove themselves. Recommendations will therefore be based on measures which will appreciate their efforts more and attract more of them in the labor pool.
They will also be based on ensuring that the issue does not overshadow more important factors in firefighting such as ensuring the proper managerial structure are in place. The last part of the paper will be conclusion. It will review the problem, the research process, findings and recommendations. The conclusion will be a brief summary of the rest of the paper, as well as a personal opinion of the subject.
Conclusion
Gender diversity at the workplace is easily confused with gender discrimination but they are not the same thing. It is more concerned with equal recognition of both genders at the workplace. This paper will review the genesis of the concept and look at achievements made so far, using the firefighting department as an example. Some professions seem to have achieved equal representation among men and women, while some seem to be trailing behind. Starting from school, science subjects still attract more boys than girls while art subjects seem to have equal representation.
To achieve compete gender diversification at the workplace, the culture needs to grow from the basic level of school. The government can promote this by setting rules and regulations that outline how gender representation should be addressed in different organizations. It can also provide incentive for more girls to enroll in firefighting careers. The paper will be my humble contribution to ensuring equal representation and participation of both genders in the firefighting industry.
Bibliography
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Chetkovich, Carol. Real heat: Gender in the urban fire service. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2002.
Dwyer, Sean, Orlando Richard and Ken Chadwick. “Gender diversity in management and firm performance: The influence of growth orientation and organizational culture.” Journal of Business Research 56 (2003): 1009-1019.
Harper, Richard Women firefighters: The views of males and females in the fire services. New York: Governors State University Press, 2002.
International Association of Women in Fire and Emergency Services. A community of fire service women, 2010. Web.
Jackson, Susan. Diversity in the workplace: Human resources initiatives. New York: Guilford Press, 2002.
National Fire Academy. The making of firefighters, 2010. Web.
National Fire Protection Association. The US Fire Service, 2009. Web.
Olson, Garret. Gender diversity recruitment and retention for the Scottsdale fire department. Arizona, City of Scottsdale Arizona Fire Department, 2006.
Powell, Gary. Gender and diversity in the workplace: Learning activities and exercises. Thousands Oaks, Calif.: Sage, 2010.
The American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. “Performance differences between males and females on simulated firefighting tasks.” Journal of Occupational Medicine 29(2003), 200-314.
U.S Department of Emergency Service. Gender Issues and fire station facilities, 2010. Web.
U.S Fire Administration. A handbook on women in firefighting: The challenging face of the fire services. Washington D.C.: Federal Emergency Management Press, 2004.
Yoder, Janice and Lynne Berendsen. “Outsider within the firehouse: African American and white women firefighters.” Psychology of Women Quarterly 25(2001): 27-36.