SUGGESTED ANCHOR INTRO
Last year, only 6% of women in the United States worked in male-dominated fields such as mining, forestry, and the emergency services. Now one program in the state of Virginia is working to narrow the gap by encouraging young women to take up firefighting. Our Correspondent, Andrea Arenas visited "Camp Heat".
IN: Its a tough job
OUT: SOC
DUR: 2'30
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SCRIPT
VO 1.
A group of 14 young girls get off a Fire truck at Arlington's Fire Department, in Virginia. They are all wearing helmets and appear excited for what they're about to learn.
These teenagers are taking part in Camp Heat, a girls-only four-day program that introduces them to the male-dominated profession of firefighting.
Only 29 of the estimated 300 firefighters in Arlington County, are women - that's around 9%.
Across the US as a whole, the number is even lower - just 7% of the 1.1 million firefighters are female.
Camp Heat is trying to change that - since it was created in 2013, nearly 80 young women have graduated... and many of them have chosen to become a firefighter. Ana Sofia Uro de Leon says that this is her second year coming to Camp Heat, and that having this experience has helped her make up her mind about the career she wants to pursue.
Organizer Marcia Tia Reed, herself a firefighter, wants to show the importance of doing something outside your comfort zone.
SOT
SUPER: Firefighter Marcia "Tia" Reed, Camp Heat Organizer
"We are here to show them that we can do it too. It's important that these children are educated. No one really knows about the fire service, women are always taught that they should be pretty and different things of that nature, and we want them to understand that you can play a role in the fire department and be that too."
VO 2.
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SUPER: Firefighter Marcia "Tia" Reed, Camp Heat Organizer
"We are here to show them that we can do it too. It's important that these children are educated. No one really knows about the fire service, women are always taught that they should be pretty and different things of that nature, and we want them to understand that you can play a role in the fire department and be that too."
VO 2.
Only 29 of the estimated 300 firefighters in Arlington County, are women - that's around 9%.
Across the US as a whole, the number is even lower - just 7% of the 1.1 million firefighters are female.
Camp Heat is trying to change that - since it was created in 2013, nearly 80 young women have graduated... and many of them have chosen to become a firefighter. Ana Sofia Uro de Leon says that this is her second year coming to Camp Heat, and that having this experience has helped her make up her mind about the career she wants to pursue.
Ana Sofia Uro de Leon says that this is her second year coming to Camp Heat, and that having this experience has helped her make up her mind about the career she wants to pursue.
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SUPER: Ana Sofia Uro de Leon, Recruit and Mentor
"My plan was just to become a lawyer in the future, honestly... and then I took this camp, and now I am like, well the fire department is pretty cool... and so I am looking for ways were I can be a lawyer but with the fire department or even just a firefighter.
VO 3.
The hope is that some of these girls will choose to fight fires for a living... and that those who don't will fight gender disparity across a variety of male-dominated fields.