FARWELL — According to United Women’s Firefighters, the first female firefighter in the United States was Molly Williams.
The year was 1818 and Williams was a slave.
It’s said that her impact was made during a flu outbreak that led to a shortage of firefighters where she stepped in.
207 years later, women only make up roughly 9% of firefighters.
One of those firefighters is Rachel Humphrey, who works at the Surrey Township Fire Department in Clare County.
“I’m not intimidated by male-dominated fields,” Humphrey said. “I actually take them as a challenge and as a learning opportunity to prove to myself what I can do.”
Humphrey isn’t a stranger to male-dominated work, she also served in the U.S. military where the U.S. Department of Defense reports a little more than 17% of women make up active-duty service members.
She credits a lot of her drive to her upbringing.
“I had two brothers, and my dad never treated me any different than the boys. I went hunting and fishing and did all the pig poop shoveling that we had when raising pigs,” said Humphrey.
Also on the Surrey Township Fire Department team is Brooke Baldwin.
She started as an EMT who got hit by the firefighting bug and began training.
She said there’s been some unexpected yet welcome changes to the field.
“My fire academy is about 40% female right now, which is amazing to see,” said Baldwin.
Both women said working in male-dominated fields can have obstacles
“Sometimes two females show up at the scene and they’re like, you can see the glimmering eyes. They’re like when I called 911, I was not expecting two girls to walk in my door,” said Baldwin.
“You can’t take it personally; I take it as an insecurity in their form and not in mine,” Humphrey said.
Both Humphrey and Baldwin said they love helping people.
She started o ut as an EMT who got hit by the firefighting bug and began training.g..
“It’s important to just inspire and uplift women in male-dominated fields where they’ve spent a majority of their life looking into these fields, saying ‘Man, that’s something I really want to do.’ But I didn’t think that I was ever going to have the opportunity. Now we’re starting to empower them and lift them up and say, ‘Hey you, this is something that you can do,’” said Baldwin.