When I was a little girl, I used to watch the attendants at the full-serve petrol stations in their petrol-stained dungarees and dream of doing their job. Once full-serve stations faded into the past, I began looking towards the auto mechanics. Between the freedom to get messy, the one-piece rompers and what seemed to embody the antithesis of pink frilly dresses, something about what they did appealed to me.
It is my belief that all people, regardless of biological or sex or gender identity possess both traditionally masculine and feminine qualities to varying degrees. Each of us as individuals has a path to follow and we can often feel called to express and live out the parts of our nature and personalities that society may deem as more ‘masculine’ or ‘feminine’—regardless of our sex or gender—and both of which make valuable and necessary societal contributions. Women can be drawn to paramedicine and engineering, while men can feel drawn to nursing and teaching. I am lucky to have grown up in a family where both of my parents were nurses by profession, they took turns cooking dinner, and raised my brother and me as a team with a balance of nurturing and discipline (if anything, my mum was the stronger disciplinarian!). Thankfully, in my eyes, gender equality—or human individuality and expression regardless of gender—has always been the norm.
In paramedicine, which has its roots in ambulance driving, women were called forward during the Second World War because of a shortage of men to fill the roles, and an increasing need to convey the wounded to hospital. At a time when the expectations of women to bear and care for children, and look after the homefront, were much stronger than they are today, the proposition of women working was not an appealing one to many, but was a necessary leap forward for women and for society as a whole.
This year, as we approach International Women's Day on 8 March, we also mark the leap year on 29 February, which has been associated with leaps of progress—individually, but I would suggest collectively as well. Indeed, it is interesting to note, that 1940, which is the year that women began to volunteer for the ambulance service, was also a leap year.
While the ambulance service has traditionally been dominated by men, women currently make up more than 40% of ambulance service roles and paramedic registrants in the UK (College of Paramedics, 2022). It remains the only profession registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) (2023) with more men than women but this is balanced out in my view by the professions in which there are more women than men. Women are however largely underrepresented in more advanced roles, in large part owing to social constructs and persistent gender norms (Ulrich et al, 2023)—crucially reflecting the progress that still lies ahead.