Bronnie Mackintosh is a station officer in New South Wales. She sits on a panel of other executive fire officers tasked with interviewing hundreds of potential recruits for the state's professional fire brigade - Fire and Rescue New South Wales.
Only two in this intake are female.
"The gene pool of candidates represents a very narrow demographic in our society, so it's really validated for me the need to diversify," she said.
She said the majority are Australian-born Anglo Saxon men with English as a first language.
"It is one of the last bastions of the traditional male occupation but with targeted recruitment and changing roles for women in society, we're seeing more [who are] realising it's an attractive and appealing career."
The MFB has launched its first proactive recruitment campaign in a decade, targeting women and people from diverse backgrounds.
It opened for 700 potential recruits, split evenly by gender for 350 men and 350 women.
"The recruitment process is all about just getting an opportunity to do a recruitment course. A course lasts for 18 weeks and any individual - male or female - will need to satisfy the requirements of that course before they can become a firefighter," said MFB Chief Officer Peter Rau.
The goal is to increase the Brigade's professional female workforce to 5 per cent by 2020.
Peter Rau. Source: SBS
Currently less than 3.4 per cent of Melbourne firefighters are women, in Fire and Rescue NSW that figure is about 4.5 per cent. In South Australia's Metropolitan Fire Service, 4.4 per cent of firefighters are women, while in Queensland's Fire and Emergency Services it's 4.4 per cent. While just 2 per cent of the Northern Territory's Fire and Rescue Service staff are female.
"That doesn't reflect society, that doesn't reflect the people in our community and I'd be hopeful that other organisations would adopt a similar practice," said Mr Rau.
The move has received mixed reviews from the public and fire fighting community.
Career firefighter and union member Rachel Cowling said hiring women on a quota would undermine their creditability.
"The young women applying, they'll never know if they were the best candidate - they might just be selected because they were needed for another number, another woman," she said.
Anna Schwager and Rachel Cowling. Source: SBS
The United Firefighters Union has taken the MFB to the Fairwork Commission to block the move. State Emergency Services Minister Jane Garrett wants to keep politics out of the process.
"I'm just hoping we can all be on the same page here," she said. "We are not changing standards to get into the MFB or to become a firefighter. There's plenty of women who have that skill set and capacity they just need the opportunity."
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The MFB want the freedom to choose recruits from a pool of approved candidates, rather than hire them in order of a rank given in testing, called the order of merit.
The union fear the change would lead to a drop in standards. Firefighter and union member Anna Schwager said in life and death situation firefighters can't second guess the abilities of their colleagues.
"It's extremely important probably the most important aspect of the job. When we go into a house fire another area we need to know the person behind us has out back and can do the job."
The MFB and Union have agreed to negotiate a compromise to see the ranks of female firefighters increased.
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