Shannon Ingall says seeing women in first responder jobs like firefighting helps take the fear away for others considering it as a career.
She's been with Kingsville's fire department for the past 10 years.
"There's that fear of whether you're going to be successful," she told CBC Radio's Windsor Morning host Amy Dodge.
"If you have the chance to try it first … then it takes that fear away when you go to apply."
Ingall says things have really changed since she started a decade ago — but that doesn't mean other obstacles still aren't present for aspiring women.
"I was the only female joining on with Kingsville. There was a female before in the past, but they weren't on the department when I came on. Now, we've had six or seven come through the department since I've been on."
She'll be a part of the fifth Women on Fire event at Lakeshore's Atlas Tube Recreation Centre set for Saturday Oct. 4.
It's a group aimed at educating, mentoring, advising and even training young women interested in entering and succeeding at non-traditional employment opportunities.
The sessions are designed to promote diversity in emergency responder organizations such as fire, police, EMS, border security, the Canadian Armed Forces and correctional services within Windsor-Essex.
It's for recruitment training opportunities for women 18 years and older, and involves things like physical testing and networking.
Donna Desantis has been a volunteer firefighter with Tecumseh's fire department for 14 years.
She says more is still required to recruit and better prepare women for the field.
"We found women were coming out for recruitment and sometimes they weren't successful in passing the physical testing, so I was often tasked with helping people," Desantis said.
"It's unique testing components, not something you can find in the gym, with fire and police and even EMS. The testing components are very specific to our jobs."
And out of that, Women on Fire was born, she said.
"We wanted to create an event, take the mystery out of what to expect during recruitment and give women the opportunity to try practice it as well as mentoring with some of us already in the organizations."
Ingall says there's a lot of lifting with fire service duties — from pulling bundled up hoses to dragging a dummy. And that testing remains the same for men and women.
"We have a whole bunch of different stations set up. As times have changed … the job has changed over years. It is a very physically demanding job for sure. But the testing itself is definitely doable. It's just learning different."
Desantis says while the first responder field is still male dominated — especially in fire — it would have felt more comfortable to begin her career alongside more women.
"Connecting with women that are in the organizations … and it's nice to have somebody that you can call or ask questions and just the whole environment is very supportive at this. [Tomorrow] it's not a test. It's not a race to get it done. It's practice and exposure."
The event has grown to more than 100 participants each year.