Female in a male dominant job?

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I'm actually considering getting into a firefighter career. The thing is I'm unsure what courses I should take or perhaps volunteer. Also I know being female firefighter is hard enough as well as being an aspie. Can you help?

Somewhere I have read about volunteers being needed since fewer people do that today, and I know of two young women who began with some classes and training as volunteers in a small rural setting.

You mean view do firefighting or volunteering?

i can't offer any help with the specifics of firefighting, but hey girl, i'm a female welder

there is this culturally and biologically enforced stereotype that men are better at physical labor and women are better at caregiving, and people love to say "good for you!" if you diverge from the norm, but unfortunately, just saying "good for you" isn't good enough because it doesn't address the issues that people like female welders and male nannies still face even with such reinforcements as equal opportunity employment.

to be clear, a lot of employers, clients, and co-workers don't assume i have less ability than the guy next to me, but there have been enough individual instances to see that it exists as a trend, not an anomaly. and even seemingly insignificant incidents in the work place build up and have big consequences.

then i also have the social disadvantage of being autistic, i mean, it can be very hard to communicate when something is wrong, or even communicate at all.

for the sake of not turning this into even more of a novel i will refrain from providing examples of specific instances and their consequences, but if you're interested i can divulge some...i have plenty.
however, i have plenty of success stories as well, and there is no way that the negative aspects of my work outweigh the positives.

what i have learned thus far is that most people aren't very sexist if sexist at all, and will at least be tolerant if not accepting of social differences, but there are also people who are not. don't waste your time with people who are not if you can help it (and sometimes you can't). try to find teachers and employers who will judge you based on your ability to do the job alone (because that's what equality really means!) and help you get up to where you want to be rather than hinder your success little by little.

secondly, don't be afraid to be a badass. confidence, knowledge, effort, commitment, all that great stuff. just own it and don't let anyone, even yourself, get it into your head that you aren't good enough. this is cliche advice that could apply to anyone, but make sure you're applying it to yourself. when you know you're good at what you do other people will notice too, and usually believe you.

and thirdly, even if you're the only woman in your direct group you are NOT the only woman firefighter or woman doing "men's" work in general, and at least i've found that women in this type of work naturally form pretty great support networks. so, seek other women out if you can!

Thanks for taking your time giving advice

This inspired me:)

My mother's job isn't exactly feminine either, she runs a scrap yard where people bring in metal bits and pieces to recycle. I sometimes like to tell people she basically tells a bunch of big strong men in hard hats what to do.

If you have what it takes to be a firefighter, than you should do it. Personally though, I'd be worried about how emotionally taxing it would be and not just physically. Seeing people losing everything they have in a fire, and no insurance, or losing lives and people being badly burned and stuff. And then there are vandals or pyromaniacs who start the fires on purpose.

I'm a female autie in a male dominated job. They guys were cautious around me at first because they were all worried they might offend me and get written up. I was cautioned before I even officially started the job by a female supervisor about the guys' behavior and told I should come to her directly if I ever felt uncomfortable/the need to complain. I was also cautioned against unladylike behavior by this same supervisor. I really didn't know what to do or say around the guys the first few months, nor they me. All of us were afraid the other was going to write us up. We kept our communication strictly professional. Eventually we all worked some graveyard shifts together, and lets just say we all loosened up. It was gradual, very gradual. But once we were all sure we weren't going to offend each other, we got along great. It is seriously a relief working with these guys, and we trust each other. Those guys have stood up for me and even sent some union reps to talk to me when some of the supervisors tried to pull some weird stuff. The union reps seemed to scare the supervisors off well enough, but I think the guys made it pretty clear they were ready to go to bat for me as well.

I have had a few jobs before in male dominated environments, and they tended to follow the same pattern. I have also had jobs in female dominated environments. I am not built for those. Neurotypical females are much more socially sophisticated than I am, and I tend to have a hard time being accepted by groups of females. Interestingly, part of my schooling was at an all girl's school, and I had no real trouble being accepted there (as opposed to a female dominated environment). Add to that the fact that female dominated fields tend to make less money and have fewer benefits, and I know what I prefer.

Volunteer firefighting (including EMT assistant) as a way to get some training and get started. Many people used to get started that way as volunteer firefighters in small communities, then later found paying jobs in larger departments. Fewer people do that today because they want to be paid from the start, but I believe the lower-cost opportunities are still available.

Full time EMT here, depending on where you live you will have a very hard time finding a paying firefighting job. Volunteering..ehh..maybe a path into a career field, but this is heavily dependent on where you live. EMS is generally paying and is much more 'gender neutral' per se. I'm not saying you can't be a firefighter and a girl, I am saying girl or not you will have a very hard time finding a full time paying firefighting gig without knowing the right people, but this depends on where you live. I know someone who was a firefighter/EMT in the Air Force and still had a very hard time finding a paying firefighting job when he got out of the military. He's currently with the City of Pittsburgh fire dep. and I'd wager he only got in because of veterans preference.

Generally, firefighting/EMS is hard to make a career out of - the firefighting jobs aren't there anymore unless you live in a large city and then you need to know the right people, and EMS generally doesn't pay enough to raise a family on - There are absolutely Paramedics making a really good living by themselves or just with their spouse, but it's very difficult to raise kids on that kind of money. I plan on staying in EMS for a few years then going into law enforcement.