Women in Rescue

Women in Rescue (WIR) is a training event that is designed to provide women with the opportunity to get hands-on with equipment, build on rescue skills, and have fun in a safe and supportive environment.

On this page:

Historically, training and the use of the tools within the emergency services space has been male dominated, and hasn’t always taken into
consideration the specific needs of female members.

WIR is designed to help modify training techniques to suit all members with varying strengths and capabilities, and to empower women
to showcase their skills in contributing to the safety of our communities.

The objectives of WIR are:

  • To increase operational capacity with rescue tools through ‘hands on tools’ time.

  • To share, explore and develop adaptive techniques of tool use that best suits a range of individuals, for trainers and members to take back to their units.

  • To create a challenging, positive and collaborative learning environment during the training day.

  • To expand the leadership capacity and networking opportunities of women in emergency services, and celebrate women in the rescue space.

Women in Rescue 2024 from Victoria State Emergency Service on Vimeo.

Women in Rescue in 2024

On 16 March 2024, around 250 women from across our VICSES units joined at locations across the state to participate in this year's Women in Rescue event - our biggest year yet!

Stands included road crash rescue, urban search and rescue, mass casualty, safe working at heights, incident management and much more. 

We'd like to give a huge thank you to everyone involved in planning and coordinating this event. See you next year!

Previous Next