James Walsh
Star Tribune
ST PAUL, Minn. — Sarah Reasoner, Martha Feckt and Megan Roesler Turner come from very different backgrounds that led them to think about careers as St. Paul firefighters in very different ways.
Reasoner is an All-American track and field athlete and former bodybuilder and powerlifter, but wanted a career with deeper purpose. Fect, a St. Paul fire captain, went on vacation to Montana where she became a paramedic; the Maplewood native jumped at the chance to return. Roesler-Turner was inspired to become a paramedic after watching a firefighter resuscitate a heart attack patient at the coffee shop where she works; she now works as a trainer at the academy.
All three have undergone rigorous training – men and women must meet the same physical requirements – but they know that many women give up on the challenge.
They started Twin Cities Female Firefighter Fitness (TCF3) to not only encourage women to consider becoming a firefighter, but to give them the confidence, strength and stamina to win the job. Eye on St. Paul met with them last week to talk about their work to empower women to pursue a male-dominated profession.
This interview has been edited for length.
Q: Can you tell us a little bit about what you are doing to make firefighting a career option for more women?
Why: There are two reasons. First, I don’t think a lot of girls grow up thinking, “I want to be a firefighter.” It’s not something that a lot of women are interested in. The second thing we’re addressing is strength and confidence, because there’s a big gap in the testing process and the percentage of women who are able to pass the test. I think biology has something to do with it, but that’s the way it is.
We did the test last fall and saw a sharp drop in the number of women who said they were interested and took the test: 64 women filled out interest cards, but only 30 took the practice test.
Q: Of the 30 applicants, how many passed?
Reason: 12. TCR3’s mission statement is “by women, for women” because we believe a female-centric platform will create a safer space. At work, you have to learn how to behave physically and interact with a bunch of men, and the first step is to boost your confidence. There’s so much power in being surrounded by a community of like-minded women encouraging each other.
Despite repeated setbacks and opposition, I forged ahead to achieve my dream of becoming a firefighter.
Fect: There are a lot of women working as trainers right now. Some are single, some have families. They come from all walks of life. Some of the women who came to this job in their 30s, some of them had careers before they got to this job, they went through this process, they struggled in the academy in the same position. We want to be able to connect with these women and help them grow so that when they take the exam, they have confidence.
Q: How many female firefighters are there in St. Paul?
Fecht: 27.
Q: How many?
Fecht: 434.
Q: Why is it important to have more women in the sector?
Roselaer Turner: Well, I think it’s about what women can bring to the job. In addition to everything they can do as equally as men, women have other skills that they can bring to the job. I also think it’s about matching with the community that we serve. There are a lot of calls that we go out to, especially medical EMS calls, where it’s very beneficial to have a woman on the rig to help the patient.
So, as an example, let’s say you’re getting a sexual assault report and you have a young woman and she’s not very comfortable, she’s just been assaulted, so it would be beneficial for her to have a woman there who can be a reassurance to take her vital signs, to examine her, to just be with her in that moment.
Q: Why is it an advantage to have a woman at the top of the ladder in a burning building?
ROSELAH TURNER: Because we can do these things just as well as the men can. And we’re strong and powerful and we can do this work just as well as the men can. And the purpose of this group is to show other women that they can do it too.
Q: Do you have a group that you work with?
Reasoner: We’re building that out. We got help from HR with a list of women who applied last fall, and we sent out a mass email to that group.
Fect: Our goal is to train every woman who is interested every month. One training session a month is not enough to prepare them to take and pass the exam, but it gives them an opportunity to find their footing.
Q: Who came up with this idea?
Fecht: Sarah (The Detective)
Reeser: It started with the testing process last fall that I helped with. They had three days set aside for the physical portion of the testing and practice. And I got frustrated because I had six or seven women asking me, “Can I have your phone number? Can I follow you on social media or whatever? I have questions,” and I didn’t have an answer.
I went to my training director, Chief Jeremy Baker, and said this is what I was looking at. I told him I had six weeks to prepare for this test, and three attempts to lift the object. A woman cannot lift a 175 pound dummy in one go. It takes time. It takes practice. It takes coaching. We talked for three hours in his office, and suddenly we had TCF3.
Q: What do you think will come out of this?
Inferred: Last night [ June 11 ] We got a glimpse of the positive side of things. Nine women who didn’t know each other showed up, and at the end of the 30-minute workout, they started competing. The women competed against each other, high-fiving, dancing, yelling, clapping, encouraging each other. And at the end of the workout, they asked, “Hey, what do you do? Where are you from?”
It was community building, it was networking, it was fitness. It’s all rolled into one. Why wouldn’t you want to do this? It’s awesome.
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