"Women already had an intimidating entry point to the male-dominated field. Trump's orders to dismantle DEI in the federal government could hurt years of progress."

"While Mikaela Balkind was working on her degree at the University of Washington in 2018, she was looking for a way to bridge her two interests in natural resource management and climate science. So when she came across a friend’s Instagram post about a women in wildland firefighting bootcamp, she thought to herself, “Wow, this is perfect.”

Over two weekends in Vale, Oregon, she learned skills like how to dig a fireline and use different tools and equipment during a fire deployment, all part of training she would need for a red card, the main certification a wildland firefighter needs to work.

But the bootcamp offered something else, too — a less intimidating entry point into the male-dominated field where approximately 13 percent of firefighters are women."

Jessica Kutz reports for The 19th February 28, 2025. [2]