[email protected] [email protected] Stopping the drip Looking for new ways to stop the harassment of women firefighters.

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Stopping the drip

Looking for new ways to stop

the harassment of women firefighters

Dr. Dave Baigent GradIFireE, BA Hons, Phd [email protected]

To hear the recorded version go to

www.fitting-in.com/melbourne/drip.WAV

www.fitting-in.com

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.fitting-in.com/melbourne/drip.WAV

http://www.fitting-in.com/


Ongoing research on the how firefighters develop and protect their (masculine)

identity

Background– One more last working class hero

(www.fitting-in.com/baigent.pdf)

– Research of a (largely) unreconstructed masculinity (represents a patriarchy at work Walby 1986, 1990)

– Developing an understanding of a source of hegemonic masculinity (Connell 1987, 1995, 2005)

– Qualitative research using to produce findings that firefighters might understand (Grounded Theory Glaser and Strauss 1965Pro-feminist auto critique (Hearn 1994)


Research (Baigent 2001, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2007) that suggests

Firefighters have three core values/needs

A need to protect the public

A need to protect their watch (group cohesion)

A need to protect their (masculine) identity

Put into practise through

Formal culture (institutional process)

Informal culture (group behaviour)


Informal Culture

Informal culture is pervasive

Firefighters need to prove that they belong – that they fit-in (concepts of pre-destiny Weber 1971)

Newcomers on the watch are persuaded to fit-in

Power of the group/watch over the individual

Power of the watch to resist managers

Each watch at each station can have a slightly different variable

In a fire service with 25 stations – 4 watches on each station can lead to 100 variants of the informal culture

Every watch forms up under the umbrella of the union


Research that indicates the extent that male firefighters harass women

First survey “Who Rings The Bell” (Baigent 1996) indicates that over 60% of women firefighters have experienced harassment

Second survey “One Decade On” (Baigent 2006) indicates that over 50% of women firefighters have experienced harassment

Findings supported by HMCIFS (2001), Johnson (2004), Wright (2005)

Recognition by Hearn and Parkin (1987, 1995: 74) and Walby (1990: 52)


What does the 2006 data say in reply to the question about harassment?

Frequency Percent Valid PercentCumulative

Percent

Valid Yes119 52.4 53.4

53.4

No99 43.6 44.4

97.8

Comments indicate bullying/harassment has taken place

5 2.2 2.2100.0

Total 223 98.2 100.0

Missing System 4 1.8

Total 227 100.0

119 (53.4%) of the respondents replied “Yes” 99 (44.4%) replied “No.” Five women fell into the fell into the group whose qualitative response were recorded as “Comments indicate bullying/harassment has taken place.”


When asked “During first year did harassment occur: frequently, occasionally, never?”

26.6% (50) of women answered “Frequently,” 25.5% (61) of women answered “Occasionally” 39.9% (75) of women answered “Never.” Two women firefighters fell into the group whose qualitative response were recorded as “Comments indicate bullying/harassment has taken place.”

Frequency Percent Valid PercentCumulative

Percent

Valid Frequently50 22.0 26.6

26.6

Occasionally61 26.9 32.4

59.0

Never75 33.0 39.9

98.9

Comments indicate bullying/harassment has taken place

2 .9 1.1100.0

Total 188 82.8 100.0

Missing System 39 17.2

Total 227 100.0


The Drip

Sonia: I was excluded … It was instigated by one person who was very influential

Sue: Another member of the watch not speaking to me or communicating

during drills - practical "jokes" eggs in shoes wetting me etc

Sarah: In the first year, just remarks questioning my strength and ability to

do the job. But these comments were always made by the same person with an audience .. not one on one


Official support for women and recognition of their sexual harassment

HMCIFS (1999) labels fire service as institutionally sexist

Bain Enquiry (2002) identifies unacceptable treatment of

women

Select Committee (2006) identifies failure to meet targets

for women firefighters

Chief Inspector of Fire Service (2006)

A worse situation than 20 years ago

Not the bottom of the league but in a different league

Minister for Fire makes it very clear that she expects more women to be employed (Smith 2007)


Recognition of reality –Women are being harassed

A number of interventions

Moral argument

Education

Sanctions


Moral argument fairness for all supported by FBU/employersFailed

EducationAll firefighters receive equality training Failed

SanctionsStrict discipline measures threatenedFailed

AnalysisEducationProvides the tools for men to avoid being caughtThreat Increases secrecy -Drives harassment further undergroundIncreases group solidarityCulture identifies the harasser as victimWomen afraid to speak out because of backlash


Structural/institutional or individuals?

Case studiesFour women who left the fire service

– Principal Manager • challenged the culture just be being there• marginalised by other principal managers throughout the fire service• held her ground – worn down - took out a sexual harassment action• weakened - settled out of court (including a silencing agreement)

– Watch manager• successful career• promoted and not accepted by peers• looked for help – unsupported by managers – took out sexual harassment

action • weakened - settled out of court (including a silencing agreement)

– Firefighter• treated badly • stood up against the men - worn down • weakened – took out sexual harassment action – settled out of court

(including a silencing agreement)– Student

• harassed whilst on work-placement • kept secret • spoke out after she left – will not now join the fire and rescue service


AnalysisPractise

Occasionally overt sexism

Mostly a drip drip (having a laugh)

Common factor

The group (watch) allow this behaviour

Outcomes

Victim – fit-in – stay -?

Victim – fit-in - resist – leave


What’s happening to the woman?

First caught in the headlights– Woman able to recognise what was happening– Believing once men accepted them it would get better– Some women just accept this situation

Some still caught in headlights– Wanting justice– Doubting sanity– Psychologically unable to continue

Could have been solved– If the group had chosen this behaviour could have

been stopped


What’s happening in the organisation

Defend the victim Until the point when they take legal action

Then – Caught in headlights managers are transfixed by the need to

protect the organisation– The perpetrator may be to blame but with a court case looming

until the organisation can buy her silence they must act against the women

– After buying the women’s silence there is no evidence against the perpetrator

Result– Little or no recognition of the problem– Avoiding or not even looking for the truth– Little or no attempt to take the moral high ground– Women learn the lesson that if they complain they will loose their

job


Firefighters attending to their needs(Defending their identity and hegemony)

Firefighters believe they need to fit-in with each other to maintain the cohesive team

Watch develops a collective memory and in some ways this makes each watch unique

This collective memory (tradition) is protected by each cohort of firefighters for the next generation

Handed down through homosociality – protected by bullying and harassment

The individual fulfils their needs through the group (watch) they work with

The watch (their work) becomes their way of understanding the world

The individual in the fire service (through their informal culture) may be attending to all five needs (Maslow 1987); including the potential to believe they self-actualise

Hegemony will only end once people remove support


Men’s hierarchy’s

Culturally dominant Hegemonic masculinity

Complicit masculinities

Subordinated masculinities

Culturally less powerful women


Looking for a way of turning this situation around

Something that – Employers can gain from– Helps the individual victim– Helps the individual harasser– Leaves the team intact– Does not stop fitting-in– Does not remove the healthy and antagonistic

relations that exist– Something that breaks the circle of violence –


The circular question from Avon’s women and leadership conference (2006)

Question

How do we increase the numbers of women firefighters in the fire and rescue service?

Answer

Change the culture

Question

How do we change the culture?

Answer

Increase the number women firefighters in the fire and rescue service


Concept of empowering the victim

Victim is only the victim because they are trapped

Fire Service are also trapped

Fire Service’s inability to do anything also adds to victim’s powerlessness

Women must fit-in or leave


Two ways forwardFormally

Senior Managers must recognise what is happeningUnderstand the complicated cultural arrangementsRecognise you cannot warm up the whole seaConcentrate resources on one areaJunior managers must be trained to intervene

Informally Spartacus momentSomeone must speak out to stop the drip


Stopping the drip

Looking for new ways to stop

the harassment of women firefighters

www.fitting-in.com

Dr. Dave Baigent GradIFireE, BA Hons, Phd

[email protected]




To find research on the fire service visit

www.fitting-in.com

To share/publish your research on the fire service send it to

[email protected]




Out takes follow


Complicated arrangements associated with Hegemonic Masculinity

Connell: a social experience which establishes the gender hierarchy as taken for granted

Hearn: a social phenomenon that ‘all’ men gain from; reinforced by some men through violence

Walby: a social practise through which men adopt a patriarchal position to dominate women


Every Social group must … secure for its individual and group membership:The satisfaction of material and economic needs.The maintenance of spontaneous co-operation throughout the organization(Mayo 1949)The apprentice learned to be a good workman, and he also learned to ‘get on

with’ his fellows(Mayo 1949)(See also Baigent 2006 Mayo)Whilst Mayo provides considerable insight to the power of the group and this

insight can be operationalized from research in the fire service, what has yet to be explored alongside Mayo’s understanding of how powerful the group can be, is that the group does not want to change.

Leader at ground level (operational) may defer to maintaining group cohesion over and above everything else.


Connell’s Gender Hierarchy

Connell suggests gender relations are far from being ‘fixed’ ‘ or an assured thing.

Rather he sees it as an ongoing process and the outcome of human agency

Masculinity is not a coherent subject that academics are always comfortable in generalising about

Masculinities are relational - constructed against an other (traditionally femininity)







[email protected] [email protected] Stopping the drip Looking for new ways to stop the harassment of women firefighters.

Documents

male firefighters

pervasive firefighters

recognition of reality

union slide

research baigent

qualitative research

watch group cohesion

sexual harassment hmcifs