“What do you do?”
That’s the question many ask Claire Van Guse after she tells them she’s a firefighter.
“I run a hose into a burning building,” she responds. “Or, I drive the truck.”
That often prompts the follow-up question: “You drive the truck?” “Let’s just say that they don’t expect a female of my stature to be driving a fire engine,” Van Guse said. Misunderstandings about the role of female firefighters aren’t that surprising. In 2016, 3.5 percent of firefighters in the United States were women, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. And under-representation in the firefighting profession is almost double among women of color compared with white women, according to A National Report Card on Women in Firefighting.