Women firefighters allege sexist culture as FDNY commissioner quits

Regina Wilson, a 25-year FDNY veteran, describes joining the country’s largest fire department as a “culture shock.”

At a town hall hosted by the New York City Council last month, she recalled hearing lewd and derogatory remarks and having a drill instructor single her out to do push-ups. Most of all, she highlighted a battle to be herself in a workplace overwhelmingly made up of white men.

“I'm a Black woman. I love it every day,” said Wilson, who is now the president of the Vulcan Society, a storied Black firefighters’ association. “So there's no way you're going to try and make me into a white man or I’m going to conform to a white man.”

Firefighting is a male-dominated field nationwide, but New York City’s gender gap is especially glaring. According to personnel data collected by the City Council, less than 2% of the FDNY’s roughly 11,000 firefighters are women, compared to 9% nationwide and more than 12% in cities like Miami and San Francisco. The first woman to lead the department, Laura Kavanagh, stepped down on Wednesday, after less than two years on the job.

The FDNY did not make Kavanagh available to Gothamist for an interview. In an essay on Medium last month, she attributed her decision to wanting to spend more time with family and friends. Yet her exit has renewed attention to the FDNY’s gender gap, as well as long-standing complaints about sexism and harassment.

The department has for decades faced allegations of discriminatory practices, including brazen racism. But in recent public comments and interviews with Gothamist, women firefighters said the lack of racial and gender diversity affects their interactions in the field — where they help people from different backgrounds in their most vulnerable moments, often in their homes. Inside the firehouse, women’s scarcity translates into a lack of political power, coupled with a fear of retaliation for speaking out.

“It is a stain on this department for so many years,” Wilson said, “that they have not been true to making this department really reflect the citizens that it serves.”

“The New York City Fire Department is the premiere fire department in the nation, and the work continues to ensure it reflects the diversity of this city,” Amanda Farinacci, a spokesperson for the FDNY, told Gothamist in a statement.

Mayor Eric Adams and the FDNY say the department has made strides in its recruitment efforts.

Kavanagh, who Adams appointed as fire commissioner in October 2022, has not blamed her decision to leave on the FDNY’s male-dominated culture. But after she demoted a group of male fire chiefs, her tenure was marked by backlash. Kavanagh did not provide a reason for the demotions, but an aide told the New York Times that she didn’t want to play the “same old game.”

For Adams, the city’s second Black mayor, complaints of discrimination present a pressing political problem. The mayor has prided himself on appointing women, particularly women of color, in high-level positions. In 2021, the Vulcan Society endorsed Adams for mayor. And he has bristled at comparisons between Kavanagh’s departure and that of former NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell, who left after a year and a half. Near the end of her first year in the role, Sewell gave a speech about sexism before the Police Women’s Endowment Association.

Adams' choice to replace Kavanagh will be closely watched by both political observers and members of the FDNY, but he’s given little indication about whom he will pick. The department designated First Deputy Commissioner Joseph W. Pfeifer as acting fire commissioner on Wednesday.

In a WABC-TV interview on Wednesday, Adams said he was considering three candidates and would announce his choice “very soon.”

The change in leadership also comes at a pivotal moment for the FDNY, which is at the end of a recruitment cycle that happens only every four to five years. The application window for new recruits opened in June and it ends on Friday. It will not open again until at least 2028.

Firefighters say the infrequent recruitment cycle is one of several reasons for the glacial pace of change in the department. The entire process, which includes a physical and written exam, can take several years. With the exception of those who performed military service, applicants must be under 29, a limitation that women say can interfere with their childbearing years.

Sarinya Srisakul, a 19-year veteran who said she was the first Asian American woman to become a firefighter, told Gothamist that when she was new to the FDNY, she was screamed at for forgetting to unload the dishwasher. A vegan, she found food she had brought to work thrown out. Once, she said, someone left a message on a board in the firehouse: “Women don't belong in the job.”

Srisakul was hired in 2005, but the alleged problems span decades. In 2022, Anita Daniel, a Black woman firefighter in Crown Heights, testified before the City Council that she had been harassed after having a miscarriage and slapped on the rear end by an FDNY captain, among other alleged offenses.

“It’s terrifying because you’re by yourself,” said Tyeisha Pugh, a Black woman firefighter who joined in 2016, during the recent City Council town hall. “When people do make complaints, it’s really when they've been through a lot.”

Farinacci, the fire department spokesperson, credited women who had spoken out for the department's progress. “Thanks to the help of Firefighters like Wilson and Srisakul, who shared their stories and worked tirelessly in recruitment and mentorship, we continue to diversify our ranks and guarantee the fair and equal treatment of all our members,” she said.

Asked by Gothamist last month whether he would be willing to institute greater accountability measures within the department, Adams said yes, but he added that he wanted first to speak to Wilson of the Vulcan Society.

Not all women firefighters said they have had rough experiences, suggesting that the culture of an individual firehouse can make a significant difference.

Casey Chan, who joined in 2019, is the only woman stationed at Engine 15 in Lower Manhattan. She grew up nearby in Chinatown, where she said she had never known anyone who had been a firefighter.

During an interview with an FDNY spokesperson present, she credited her firehouse, which she said was more racially diverse, as having “taken very good care” of her.

Still, Chan acknowledged that the expectations were not the same for men and women firefighters. “Do I think I needed to work a little bit harder as a woman? Absolutely,” she said.

“I think tradition teaches a lot of things,” she added. “I think tradition also holds on to a lot of things that don't face external change well. We have to adapt to a changing city.”

Chan argued that diversity benefits not only the firefighters but the people they help. “We're going into people's homes and we're going to face people in their scariest moments,” she said. “I have to be able to communicate with you in a way that makes you feel safe.”

Crystal Hudson, the cochair of the Council’s Black, Latino and Asian Caucus who moderated the town hall, told Gothamist that she believed Kavanagh had been committed to addressing discrimination concerns, but that the task was still difficult.

“You have to go up against systemic biases and up against people, who frankly, don't want to see change happen,” said Hudson.

Many have credited Kavanagh as a trailblazer. There are almost no other women in leadership positions within the FDNY. Across roughly 250 firehouses and ambulance stations throughout New York City, there is only one woman fire chief.

Others viewed Kavanagh as a problem. Some inside the FDNY criticized her for never having been a firefighter, although the city had several previous male commissioners who lacked firefighting experience.

Srisakul, the first Asian American woman firefighter, said that after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, “I just kind of fell in love with the idea of doing this job helping people.”

The benefits and salary, which can top $110,000 annually after five years, were also a draw.

Srisakul aced the physical test but waited two years before being called up to join the academy. Inside the firehouse, there were often no changing rooms designated for women. She said she was bullied during her first year as a probationary firefighter, where she and other so-called “probies” were assigned menial tasks as part of an initiation ritual.

“A lot of people were like, ‘Well, that's what I did when I came on, so that's what I'm doing to you,” she said.

But Srisakul believed that her hazing experience — including being yelled at over the dishwasher and the note reading “women don’t belong in the job” — went further because of her gender.

She doesn’t want her story to dissuade other women from becoming firefighters.

“I didn't stick around because every day was bad,” she said, adding that she’s made great friends in the department. “But there are things that need to be fixed.”