Dec 23, 2025
About 80 percent of female firefighters say that their personal
protective clothing doesn’t fit right, and studies show that
ill-fitting gear puts women at greater risk of being injured on the
job. In this podcast from 2023, Jesse talks to two textile
researchers working on multi-year project to better understand the
issue and to gather the data needed to design female-specific
turnout gear.
Before the episode, Jesse gives a quick update on the project,
which has now moved onto a crucial second phase. Researchers are
now gathering measurements from thousands of women in the fire
service, which they will use to design the first prototypes of
female specific personal protective clothing. Researchers are
looking for female firefighters who are willing share their
measurement data. This can be done by yourself with an app on your
phone and takes only a few minutes. Visit,
nfpa.org/femaleppe to learn how to help.
Links:
Visit the research page to learn more about the project and how to
submit measurement data
Read and NFPA Journal feature story about the project to understand and solve the problem of ill-fitting PPE for female firefighters.
Watch a webinar presentation with researchers Cassandra Kwon and
Meredith McQuerry