For all those who could not attend the Conference live, the presentation by the writer Roy Galán is now available on video, on how to promote more plural masculinities within the fire brigade.
On 26 January 2023, the technical session “Rethinking masculinities in the Barcelona Fire Brigade” was held at the Espai Bombers de Barcelona, jointly organised by the Barcelona Fire Brigade and the Directorate for Gender Services and Time Policies at Barcelona City Council.
The purpose of the conference was to reflect on the image of firefighters in society, highly associated with traditional masculinity, and how to encourage more plural masculinities within the Fire Brigade, in order to help foster equality in society.
The conference was opened by Sebastià Massagué, the head of the Barcelona Fire Brigade, who highlighted the work being carried out by the service to address gender issues. Then, Sonia Ruiz, the director of Gender Services and Time Policies, explained the municipality’s need and commitment to work on masculinities as part of gender mainstreaming policies.
The main speech was given by Roy Galán, a law graduate, writer, columnist and a feminist and LGTBI+ activist, who explained how masculinity is constructed and reproduced socially, and what impact it has on the formation of our ideas about firefighters and the work that male and female firefighters carry out.
Lastly, Víctor Molinet, head of the Regulations and Performance Unit and a leading figure for gender mainstreaming in the Fire Brigade, explained the present and future lines of action undertaken in the Fire Brigade in regard to gender. Albert Batlle Bastardas, Barcelona City Council’s Fifth Deputy Mayor, closed the conference by offering thanks for the work done and encouraging everyone to continue including a gender perspective in the work carried out by firefighters.
Although the conference was aimed mainly at firefighters, it was also open to the general public and it proved successful in terms of participation: a total of 150 people followed it either on-site or online.
You can access the conference content via the following link: