Women of Rescue Conference

This conference is intended to enlighten the women of West Virginia regarding opportunities in the fire service and EMS fields and enhance their abilities through instructional, demonstrational, interactive, and collaborative exercises.

To promote the advancement of women in the field, we aim to provide education in fire service related content, and increase confidence through specialized training that is targeted to this specific audience.  Our conference is by women and for women. This conference utilizes strong female educators within the fire and emergency medicine fields in conjunction with a supportive and collaboratively structured program. This program will not only bring women together to learn about immensely important topics within the fire and emergency service fields, but also instill confidence, community, and foster an atmosphere of possibilities.

Diversity within the workforce is known to have a multitude of benefits. These statistics are not limited to general fields, but also male dominated areas of work, such as the fire service. Fortune 500 companies with larger populations of women on their boards have financially outperformed their competitors with low female representation. Studies have shown companies with  diverse teams exceed in sales and have increased profits (Center for Creative Leadership, n.d.). Women within the workforce creates a diverse metric of personal, educational, and social experiences. These characteristics allow for complex problem solving and increased productivity (University of Michigan-Dearborn News, 2022). Promoting women’s involvement addresses retention challenges as well (Weise, 2023).  Gone are the days where women are not afforded the right of inclusion within fire and emergency medicine.

We are excited to spend the day with the amazing women who work in these fields. We dream of building a network of these women where we can all support and advance each other. This is our first year and we welcome notes and recommendations!

For updates and announcements, check out our Facebook event!