Fanning the Flames?: Negotiating Gendered Identity in Forest Fire Suppression

This study, an examination of gendered identity in a regional Canadian community, explores the ways in which female forest firefighters negotiate ¿¿¿competent¿¿¿ identities in the face of formal and informal workplace barriers. Drawing on literature that focuses on gendered subjectivity, spatial environments, sociology of the body, and women in non-traditional work, I examine how varied workplace settings and the social interactions that take place within them shape women¿¿¿s gendered subjectivity. In contrast to the existing literature on forest fire suppression, the majority of which focuses on male firefighters, this study explores the daily experiences of female firefighters at the District Fire Center and out on the fire line. I argue female firefighters in northwestern Ontario construct and maintain ¿¿¿competent¿¿¿ workplace identities in ways that suggest a marked departure from the monolithic image of the firefighter as an ¿¿¿adrenaline junkie¿¿¿. In this context, the study focuses on the negotiation of gendered identity as a complex and nuanced exercise.