Macho firemen deter female recruits

SEXIST portrayals of muscle-bound firemen are putting women off joining the service, the head of London Fire Brigade has warned.

Dany Cotton, the London fire commissioner, blamed stereotypical images of firefighters as sex objects for the reason that many women still considered it “a man’s job.”

“I’m especially concerned about how many young people think firefighting is for men,” she said. “When popular shows like Love Island roll out every offensive cliché possible with their so-called ‘fireman challenge’, it reinforces the misconception that all firefighters are muscle-bound men. No wonder so many young women are put off by that.”

A quarter of women think men are better equipped to be firefighters, according to a Yougov survey commissioned by the mayor of London.

Just 7 per cent of women thought the same of police officers when asked: “Do you think men are more able to do the job, women are more able to do the job, or they are both equally able?”

Concerns about gender stereotyping have led the London brigade to back proposals by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) to ban sexist adverts.

Other high-profile examples of sexist stereotypes cited in the brigade’s research include a Suzuki advert featuring Ant and Dec which mentioned “fireman training”, and an advert for Harpic lavatory cleaner in which female characters objectify a male firefighter. Of just over 5,000 operational firefighters in the London force, around 300 are women.

Additional research by the brigade among women revealed concerns that the fire service is a “very masculine environment” and “a sexist field”. Ms Cotton, the first woman to hold the London force’s most senior position, urged against “lazy clichés” and the use of sexist language.

She said: “The Armed Forces and the police force have all been enriched by having women better represented across their ranks and it’s time the fire and rescue service caught up.”

A spokesman for the ASA said: “We’ve already been taking action to ban ads which reinforce harmful stereotypes and we’ll publish the results of our consultation around new rules for advertisers later this year.”