NFPA Journal - Spring 2021 - 46

Perspectives
designed for men's bodies. It's not just a comfort
issue; ill-fitting gear puts women firefighters at
higher risk of injury than men. It can " encumber
my movement, my flexibility, my ability to evade
hazards, " Jennifer Taylor, director of the Center for
Firefighter Injury Research and Safety Trends at
Drexel University, told The Verge in February.

F I R E S E R V I C E T E C H N O L O GY

FITTING IN

MANY OF THE NEARLY 94,000 WOMEN FIREFIGHTERS
IN THE UNITED STATES ARE FORCED TO USE GEAR
THAT DOESN'T FIT THEM PROPERLY, WHICH PUTS
THEM AT HIGHER RISK OF INJURY. A NEW PROJECT
ADDRESSES THE PROBLEM.
Interview conducted and edited by Angelo Verzoni
t the fire department serving the

SUITING UP
A firefighter dons
her PPE as she
prepares to
respond to a call.
Researchers say
that wearing PPE
designed for men
may put female
firefighters at
higher risk of injury
and death.
GETTY IMAGES

University of California's Davis
campus, nearly a quarter of the
firefighters are wearing personal
protective equipment (PPE) that
doesn't fit right.
That's because those firefighters are women
who are using PPE that was designed for men:
jackets with too much room in the shoulders,
gloves with fingers that are too short, pants with
insufficient room in the hips and inseams that
aren't long enough.
" The inseam, I would say, is usually the biggest
issue, " UC Davis firefighter Corrie Beall told television news reporters in August. " Especially if
you're going to be getting low, like dropping to the
ground or something, because it doesn't allow you
to have that flexibility or dexterity. "
Beall is one of nearly 94,000 women firefighters
in the United States-about 8 percent of the country's fire service. Many of these women must make
do with uniforms, boots, gloves, and other gear

When you're a female coming
into a male-dominated career,
I can only imagine the last thing
you want to do is complain about
your gear. Plus, they're our
heroes, right? They're not ones
to complain. So a lot of the time
they just make do and move
forward like firefighters do.

Addressing the problem isn't as simple as
shrinking men's gear-consider the sizing of
gloves, for example. " Women's hands are not
smaller versions of men's hands; women have
longer fingers and a narrower palm, " observed the
authors of a 2019 report published by the US Fire
Administration. " When women are forced to wear
oversized and ill-fitting gloves, it is a clear safety
concern and becomes impossible for them to hold
items securely. "
A new study by Florida State University (FSU),
in partnership with the Fire Protection Research
Foundation, aims to make progress toward fixing
the problem. The goal is to provide a comprehensive look at the issue so that researchers and
designers can create more functional, better-fitting equipment for women in the fire service.
The study, which is due to wrap up in late 2021,
is led by Meredith McQuerry, an assistant professor at FSU with an expertise in clothing comfort
physiology. NFPA Journal recently spoke with
McQuerry about the new research project, why it's
taken so long for women firefighters to get their
own PPE, and more.

What exactly is meant by " clothing comfort
physiology " ?
In my work, I study how personal protective clothing and equipment impacts human performance.
That's really at the root of what I do. I have over a

46 | NFPA JOURNAL * S P R I N G 2 0 2 1

Perspectives_spring_2021 DCS RVWD.indd 46

1/27/21 7:55 PM

NFPA Journal - Spring 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - Spring 2021