Collection Highlight: The Firefighters Handbag

In 1985 when women were formally permitted to become firefighters in the NSW Fire Brigades (NSWFB, today Fire and Rescue NSW), they faced a lot of pushback in an organisation that had been male dominated since their formation in 1884. Although there are many aspects of this to be discussed at length about the challenges women have faced in the organisation and all the barriers they have broken, today we are looking at one aspect: why were women firefighters given a handbag as part of their uniform? This question highlights a larger issue of the NSWFB not being prepared for women to join their ranks and making a lot of assumptions about what women would need to be firefighters.

Jackie Watkins (nee Turner) pictured with Board of Fire Commissioners of NSW representative Kristine Klugman and Chief Officer Bill Reay at the Tamworth ‘Demo”, 1986. Note the handbag she is wearing. [Museum of Fire Collection]

Last year we had one of these handbags donated to us by retired Station Officer Janine Bailey for our temporary exhibition Breaking Barriers, Battling Blazes: The History of Women Firefighters. Bailey joined the NSWFB in 1992 and was shocked to be given a handbag as part of her uniform, especially since she wasn’t even given firefighter boots. In the book Trailblazing: The History and Stories of Female Firefighters in Fire and Rescue NSW, Bailey comments on what was going through her mind when she received her uniform: “Immediately, I panicked; how was I going to fight fires without boots? AND what was I going to do with a handbag? Was I meant to beat the fire to death? Perplexed, I asked the instructor what the handbag was for. He replied, ‘women need to carry things.’ ‘What things?’, I asked. Glaring back at me, he said embarrassed, ‘well, women’s things.’ His remarks still seem odd some thirty years later as I couldn’t understand why a female firefighter would take a handbag packed with sanitary goods to a fire… The handbag came to symbolise my entire firefighting career of ill-fitting, impractical and unsafe uniforms and equipment.”

Janine Baileys original handbag she was issued in 1992 [Museum of Fire Collection]

When we were given this handbag to add to the exhibition, we were equally as perplexed. Especially since women were given a handbag as part of their uniform until 2008. As we began looking into the uniform as a whole, we realised that the NSWFB took inspiration from somewhere else: the NSW Police. Although the turnout gear women wore was simply just the men’s uniform but in a smaller size, their dress uniform was made for them and was heavily inspired by the uniform women wore in the police force. This included a handbag, which for police officers was used to carry their gun, handcuffs, a baton, and credentials.

"We told the boys in our class we got handbags and they joked they wanted one too. The handbag had been a long-standing joke amongst those who joined the Brigade early on.” - Superintendent Belinda Hooker AFSM

Janine Bailey never used the handbag she was issued, with the original newspaper used to stuff the handbag still inside, dated to November 5, 1992 [Museum of Fire Collection]

“The Handbag is a relic of the times, a reminder that women were never welcome in the Fire Brigade.” – Janine Bailey

Making a Uniform Fit for Women

Finally, by 2008 the NSWFB had stopped issuing a handbag to women, however, women still did not have an entire uniform made for them and were still wearing small men’s uniforms for some pieces. It wasn’t until the mid 2010s that a female uniform project was created, and women finally had a uniform made for them. Assistant Commissioner Cheryl Steer AFSM was part of this project and when she attended the Permanent Firefighter recruit graduation on 15 December 2016 she “…witnessed women in the new light blue dress uniforms, pants, or skirts, and it was such a great sight. Finally, not a culotte or handbag in sight This was a very special moment. Remembering women had been in the job since 1985, and finally, they had their own uniform, and they felt appreciated and included.”

Permanent Recruit Graduation, 15 December 2016 [Courtesy of Fire and Rescue NSW]

-Blog by Acting Curator Ella Terry Murtagh