DIVERSITY IN THE FIRE
SERVICE
Goals and objectives
 To promote a message about diversity and
its importance in the fire service.
 To discuss diversity while being inclusive
to all members.
 To promote good relations between persons
of different backgrounds.
 To talk about stereotyping and its effects on
us and our perception of other groups.
WHAT IS DIVERSITY?
 Amongst humans particularly in a social
context, the term diversity refers to the
presence in one population of a wide variety
of cultures, opinions, ethnic groups,
socioeconomic backgrounds, gender, sexual
preference, and so on…
 Webster’s defines it as; differing from from
one another….having variety
What else is diversity?
 Understanding how and why we are more
alike than we are different
What isn’t Diversity?
 It is not Political Correctness
 It is not saying the right words and having
disdain in our actions and hearts
 It is not having to think just like everyone
else or following the crowd
 It is not therapy for those oppressed
Cont’d
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Not affirmative action/EEO
Not a program to correct a problem
Not a promotion requirement
Not a gimmick
Not a Mistake
It allows others to be themselves
Three Myths of Diversity
 Myth of meritocracy; if you work hard you
will be rewarded, you will make it
 Myth of colorblindness; what’s wrong with
seeing color, are you senority blind?
Rookies vs senior firefighters, generation
gaps
 Myth of a melting pot
Defining Culture
 An integrated system of learned behavior patterns
that are characteristic of any given society
 It includes everything that a group of people
thinks, says, does, and makes
 Culture is defined as a way of perceiving,
believing, evaluating and behaving
 It provides the blueprint that determines the way
an individual thinks, feels and behaves
 The problem with studying culture is its complexity
Culture Cont’d
 Macro-culture; the national culture that is
shared by most of the nation’s citizens
 Micro-cultures or subcultures; cultural
groups with distinct patterns that are not
common to all Americans, patterns involving
ethnicity, religion, economic status, political
affiliation and more
Culture’s Cont’d
 Group cultures; they include occupational
groups (fire service), peer groups, gangs,
drug cultures, and other smaller, identifiable
units of society
Reasons for diversity
 The fire service serves each and every
community, regardless of ethnicity, gender,
race, background, economy, or any other
factor, and also depends on the entire
community and country for its funding and
support.
Why is diversity important?
 It can enhance the organization’s
responsiveness to an increasingly diverse
world of customers (Mr. Mrs. Smith).
 Improves relations with the surrounding
community.
 Increase our organization’s ability to cope
with change.
 It can expand the creativity of the
organization.
Diverse backgrounds
 Diversity as a concept focuses on a broader set
of qualities than race and gender.
 In the context of the workplace, valuing diversity
means creating a workplace that respects and
includes differences.
 Recognize the unique contributions that
individuals with many types of differences can
make, and creating a work environment that
maximizes the potential of all employees.
 Remember that diversity doesn’t have to be
difficult.
 All too often, fire and emergency service providers
are anxious about diversity, almost as if frightened
by it.
 Remember if we promote inclusiveness in our
language between members, we won’t have to
tiptoe around one another.
 Think about what you’re saying while putting
yourself in the other person’s shoes.
 If you’re unsure about what’s acceptable,
ask the other person.
 Don’t let diversity scare you.
 Let it guide you.
 For some, diversity doesn’t come naturally.
 Use it to promote dialog between us.
Dialog and listening
 Do you let people finish what they are trying
to say before you speak?
 If a person hesitates, do you try to
encourage him/her rather than starting your
reply?
 Do you withhold judgment about the
person’s idea until he/she has finished?
Cont’d
 Can you listen non-judgmentally even if you
do not like the person who is talking?
 Do you stop what you are doing and give full
attention when listening?
 Do you give the person appropriate eye
contact, head nods, and nonverbal signals
to indicate you’re listening?
Developing active listening skills
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1. Stop talking
2. Put the speaker at ease
3. Don’t interrupt
4. Empathize
5. Paraphrase
6.Ask open-ended questions
7. Use silence
8. Allow reflection
Bias
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One form of misconception
A preference without basis in fact
Influences the way we relate to others
We all have them
You should be aware of them and how they form
Strive to better biases in relation to the interactions
with different people and with people who are
different
 Diversity in the workplace creates room for new
ideas as well as the possibility of increased
conflict.
 New recruits and veteran firefighters live together,
eat together and sleep together in a career that
prides itself on tradition.
 Some may learn to tolerate differences within the
normal workday, but old stereotypes, unconscious
behaviors, and occupational stress collide in
volatile ways when living with co-workers on 24hour shifts.
 Diversity begins with recruitment and
training.
 It will not occur in the workforce simply
because your department is located in a
diverse metropolitan area.
 Nor will it happen because your department
follows the law regarding non-discrimination.
 In order to achieve diversity, you must have
an active recruiting strategy and take
effective actions.
 We must begin our diversity training during
the recruiting process, which in turn will help
with the ever changing Fire Service.
 Recruitment is a vital factor in creating an
inclusive environment for our members.
 With recruitment, we have to maintain our
standards of hiring and not lower them to simply
achieve diversity.
 Sexism, racism, and other forms of prejudice
continue to be obstacles for career firefighters.
 Weakness is the last thing you want to show as a
new recruit, and many times women and people of
color leave the Fire Service in the midst of
successful careers in order to avoid harassment.
 The trend for the Fire Service is clearly
moving towards inclusiveness.
 Women firefighters are the most recent and
perhaps most dramatically different
newcomer.
 They represent change in the culture of the
Fire Service.
 But not always a welcomed change.
Women in the Fire Service
 Women face two conflicting sets of constraints.
 In many ways they are expected to fit in and
become “one of the guys”.
 They are expected to share the same kinds of
humor, foods, and hobbies.
 Use the same station facilities and to perform
firefighting tasks using the same physical
techniques as men.
 Women are expected to conform to the
dominant group’s ideas of what women
(ladies) should be:
 Compliant
 Subservient
 Smiling
 Never angry
 And above all, meeting men’s standards of
physical attractiveness.
 For women firefighters, these expectations overlap and
conflict with each other.
 Fire officers are praised for having a strong command
presence and giving orders in a direct way; ladies aren’t.
 Many times women enter the Fire Service with an uphill
battle that continues throughout their career’s.
 They are constantly having to prove themselves and their
worth, while their male counterparts don’t.
 Many times they rely on affinity groups (Sirens) to help
them with their needs and representation.
Minorities in the Fire Service
 In the 1960’s, people of color began entering the
Fire Service in significant numbers.
 In the 1970’s more minorities (Hispanics and
Asians) and women began coming into the Fire
Service in even greater numbers.
 Many departments were under a Consent Decree.
 Local or Federal Governments mandated
affirmative action programs.
Affirmative Action
 It is intended to promote access to
education, employment, or housing among
certain designated groups (typically,
minorities or women). The stated motivation
for AA policies is to redress the effects of
past discrimination and to encourage public
institutions such as universities, hospitals,
police and fire forces to be more
representative of the population.
Affirmative Action cont.
 It is commonly achieved through targeted recruitment
programs, by preferential treatment given to applicants
from designated groups, and in some cases through the
use of quotas.
 It was started in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy, but
has evolved signigicantly.
 The original order required government contractors to take
“affirmative action” to ensure equal treatment of applicants
and employees “without regard to their race, creed, color,
or national origin.”
 It is incentive based
Consent Decree
 When their AA programs fail or in extreme
cases when the employer has overtly defied
equal opportunity employment, the federal
government will impose a consent decree
on an agency
 It is usually initiated by a class action lawsuit
 It will layout specific details in hiring
practices
 Forcing departments to hire minorities and
women can often cause problems in the Fire
Service.
 It is therefore not surprising that some
members of the dominant group should feel
uneasy or sense a threat to their
longstanding dominance of the workplace
and its culture.
 This can lead to unfair treatment and
harassment to minorities.
 It also leads to resentment from the
dominant group.
 LAFD is currently going through some
personnel problems as a result of this.
 If we promote inclusiveness and dialog
between us, we can avoid these problems.
 We should have an understanding of each other in
being different while maintaining our own
identities.
 We are only of afraid of what we don’t understand.
 Sometimes we use humor to hide these fears.
 But often times our humor is harmful or
detrimental to each other.
 This can lead to stereotyping and believing the
stereotypes associated with a particular group.
Stereotyping
 A simplified and standardized conception or image
invested with special meaning and held in
common by members of a group.
 It’s a generalization of a group, culture, or beliefs.
 It starts at a young age.
 Sometimes it comes from home life.
 Sometimes it comes from school.
 Many times stereotypes are reinforced in T.V. and
movies.
 We as people of different backgrounds
should try to break down stereotypes as to
discount them.
 In a social gathering, it is often at times easy
to get caught up in stereotyping people.
 The pre-judging of people are where the
prejudices arise in our cultures.
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Not all Black people can dance.
Not all White guys can’t jump.
Not all Asian people are good in math.
Being inclusive and getting to know each
other will help bring down the walls that
separate our cultures, and it will allow us to
keep our identities in the process.
Something to think about:
 Dr. Steve Robbins teaches many organizations
across the country about “Unintentional
Intolerance”: What you think you know might hurt
others.
 What is perceived as ‘the norm”?.
 What’s our fears and how do we cope with them?
 He teaches us to communicate with each other
and to be inclusive in our dialog.
 The “Salad Bowl” theory rather than the “Melting
Pot”.
Company Officer Training Man.
 Years ago, cultural diversity was described
as the melting pot. Today, it is often
compared to an orchestra.
 Each instrument belongs to a group that
keeps its identity; each group is
interdependent with other instrument
groups.
 Each instrument group contributes to the
overall orchestral harmony.
 Likewise, in a cultural society, each group
retains its group identity, is interdependent
with other groups and contributes to overall
social harmony.
 As part of the Fire Service, you have your
own identity as an individual, yet you work
side by side with others who think, look,
sound and behave quite differently than you.
 But your success depends upon good
working relationships with everyone at the
fire station.
 Not only are you and your crew
interdependent among yourselves, you are
also interdependent with others providing
public services and contributing to the
overall harmony of society.
 The public we serve is also diverse.
 Improving your ability to understand your
colleagues will not only make the job easier
for you, but will help you in dealing with the
public under sometimes stressful conditions.
 Go forth and be inclusive in your doings.
 Can’t we all just get along?!
 Go Lakers