April 2021
Executive Summary
The Champions of Change Fire and Emergency Group includes 30 members who lead some 280,000 employees and volunteers. Together with AFAC the group have been collaborating on gender equality initiatives since 2017. The Champions of Change Fire and Emergency Progress 2020 report provides an update on their actions taken and outcomes achieved over the past 12 months, against the Group’s gender equality priorities. The report also presents the gender representation in their workforce, including frontline service delivery roles.
The Fire and Emergency Group are committed to the goals of gender equality, advancing more women into leadership and building professional, respectful and inclusive environments for all in the sector.
The Fire and Emergency Group focusses on sector-specific action in the following areas:
- Inclusive Leadership: prioritising inclusive leadership and psychologically safe workplaces. This includes identifying and calling out behaviour that is inconsistent with safe, welcoming, and inclusive environments for all employees and volunteers.
- Flexible Workplaces: identifying opportunities to normalise flexible roles and expectations around when and how work is completed, enabling better balance between work and personal commitments.
- Talent Development: pursuing gender balance in identifying and developing talent to capitalise on the diverse experiences and capabilities within and available to the sector.
- Communication: addressing communication, symbols, icons and language that may support exclusionary or ‘boys’ club’ cultures.
- Community: engaging stakeholders in the ‘case for change’ on gender equality in the sector.
- Systems: applying a gender-balance, diversity and inclusion lens to the development of workplace policies, systems and infrastructure.
- Reporting: designing and implementing rigorous and transparent reporting systems to effectively track progress on gender equality.
The report provides an update on actions taken in 2020 across these priorities, together with examples of progressive work underway within individual member organisations.
