Can Fireman Sam Really Be Stopping Young Girls And Women From Joining The Fire Service?

[anotheoldgit]

Well LFB’s Commissioner Ms Dany Cotton, seems to think so.

/// “But I really would like him to come on board and be called 'Firefighter Sam'. ///

/// "I want to shake off outdated language which we know is stopping young girls and women from considering this rewarding and professional career. ///

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/868476/Fireman-Sam-London-Fire-Brigade-Sadiq-Khan

[jackthehat]

Possibly it is.....

[andy-hughes]

With a character called 'Elvis' who has black sideburns, I don;t think the writers really had right-on political correctness in mind when they were writing this.

Come to think of it, I don't think anyone old enough to be considering a career in the Fire Service will be looking to Fireman Sam as a role model anyway!

[Mamyalynne]

I watched her in Interview the other evening, a highly intelligent woman and it would be great to encourage more girls into the job.

[dannyk13]

Maybe they could have Fireman Sam morph into Firefighter Samantha

[hereIam]

Does she know for sure it's stopping women from joining ??

[albaqwerty]

I am obviously under the mis-apprehension that some years back they did introduce a female fire-fighter.

Haven't watched it for a couple of decades tho.

[maggiebee]

//Haven't watched it for a couple of decades tho.//
Surely you're not old enough Alba?

[albaqwerty]

lol maggie, the young albas had the temerity to grow up :-D
which also knocked Postman Pat on the head too.

[jno]

I love the word OFFENSIVE in the headline.

Especailly as nobody but the headline writer has used it.

[jim360]

It's hard to quantify effects like this -- but it stands to reason that it's harder for young girls to identify with a male role-model than it would be for young boys to. They might not even notice this individually, the thought of "oh, if only there were a female role-model in the career of firefighter that I would be able to look up to as an aspiration to guide my future life choices" being presumably not one that occurs to most kids. Trying to measure the rate of people not considering something is clearly tricky.

[Mamyalynne]

I think targeting a TV programme is taking away from the sensible points she raised in interview - to get the job description more widely known especially with the young as 'Firefighter' making it clear it's open to all.

I feel that is as much the task of parents and possibly storytellers rather than changing long-standing titles.

[EcclesCake]

All the while patronising terms such as 'young girls' are being used we have many hurdles to cross.

n.b. The recruitment age for the fire service is eighteen.

[jim360]

Who's being patronising?

[Mamyalynne]

Aspirations and ambitions occur at a young age, as parents we should let our children know the possibilities and not rely on the flickering box in the corner.

[albaqwerty]

My niece and her husband bought their 2 year old a tool set and such for her birthday.
(obviously an age appropriate one)
They want to raise her to show that she can eventually become whatever she wants to be in life.

[jno]

a homewrecker maybe, alba?

[albaqwerty]

hopefully only in the good sense of the word jno :-D

[youngmafbog]

Don't schools give careers advice anymore? I'd have thought that during education would be the best place to encourage anyone to do any job.

As for highlighting Fireman Sam, well daft bat has just switched most people off, very unhelpful comment.

[jim360]

Careers advice is still a thing, but presumably the point is that most such meetings start with you telling the adviser the sort of thing you are interested in, and they will advise you based on that. So the inspiration still has to be there, and that can start from a very young age. I am not quite in the place I imagined I'd be when I was 11, but I'm very close to it, and even when I was a few years younger than that I was clearly already on this path.

Of course, it's hard to understand what started me out on my journey -- if I really had to pin it down to one moment then I'd owe it to reading Hawking's book "The Universe in a Nutshell" some time in the first few months of my first year at High School -- and equally it's hard to understand what, if anything, led to me not considering anything other than this. But everything children watch, see, hear and do can be a factor in determining what they set out to become, and it's presumably beneficial to everyone to make the choices on offer as wide as possible.

[albaqwerty]

niece is a careers advisor in a high school, she sees them from 12 through to 16 and sometimes older.
She just hopes she supports each of them as best as she can.