More women are becoming firefighters than ever before.
There are only 57 female career firefighters around the country, making up 3 percent of the 1742 paid fire fighters in the Fire Service.
But the organisation said the proportion of women recruits had jumped from 1 percent to 17 per cent in past three years.
The Fire Service's National Advisor for Women's Development, Angela Munro, (left) and Dani Millar. Photo: RNZ / Adriana Weber
The Fire Service's National Advisor for Women's Development, Angela Munro, said the percentage of women firefighters had been sitting around the same level since she joined the Fire Service over a decade ago.
"When I first started, which was 14 years ago, there were still about 3 percent of women in the job, so it was still not seen as a career for women and that's generally because we aren't exposed to it, and when you're not exposed to it, you don't get that whole idea that you could actually do it. So it's sort of put on the backburner for a lot of ladies, or they look elsewhere like the police or military or other places where it is a little bit more common for women to join," she said.
Women make up about 19 percent of the Police's 9000 constabulary staff and 44 percent of the 1200 full time St John Ambulance paramedics.
But she said the Fire Service had been pushing its recruitment initiatives that target women over the past few years, and more women were applying, and getting into the service, than ever before.
"In 2016 the number of successful female applicants has risen to 17 percent, that is a marked improvement to where it was and the recruitment teams have done a huge amount of work to get to this space," she said.
However she said there was much more work to be done, and people's perceptions also needed to change.
"There's a perception that you have to be super duper strong, you have to be like a Superman or Supergirl type, which is not actually the case. Certainly you do have to have some physicality about you because of the gear we have to carry, but to have muscles-on-muscles like you see in some firefighter calendars, that's simply unrealistic," she said.
Dani Millar is the only female firefighter at Johnsonville Fire Station. Photo: RNZ / Adriana Weber
Dani Millar admitted that was one of the concerns she had when she first joined the service a year ago, making the leap from a career as a graphic designer.
"I was worried that I physically wouldn't be capable of doing the job, so I thought that I wouldn't be strong enough and I worried at the start about how women would be perceived in the job," she said.
"Also, we're still kind of stuck in that Fireman Sam type thing, it's seen as quite a boy role, especially in the media, you never really see Firefighter Samantha or something like that."
But the 28-year-old, who is now a fire fighter at the Johnsonville Fire Station, said despite being the only woman in the brigade she was treated as an equal and loved her job.
"It's a great job and no two days are the same, which is my favorite part about it, and it has been really fulfilling. It's great to help people ... I go to quite a few jobs where you see a mum saying to their son or daughter, 'hey look girls can be fire fighters too,' and that's pretty cool."
Nicole Parker, 19, is one of 5 women involved in the Ngongotaha Volunteer Fire Brigade. Photo: Supplied
As for volunteer firefighters, 33 volunteer brigades out of 393 don't have a single female volunteer.
The Ngongotaha Volunteer Fire Brigade, near Rotorua, had five women involved in their brigade.
Nicole Parker, 19, is one of them and said she hoped one day there will be as many woman as men in her brigade.
"Don't hold back, don't feel like being a female will discourage you from continuing the job. I don't know if it's the same with every brigade but our brigade has been so welcoming and it doesn't feel any different to be a female, I'm not treated any differently and I'd encourage you to go and give it your best."
