Elliott, Springfield Fire & Rescue Division Capt. Becca Anderson and Champaign County Sheriff’s Office deputy Melany Morton were speakers at the Female First Responders panel discussion at Clark County Library on Saturday afternoon.
The discussion was led by moderator Karen Benton, the criminal justice program coordinator at Clark State College.
The three first responders discussed the reason they entered into their chosen field.
For Anderson, fire rescue was a career path she started as an adult. The Springfield fire captain said she worked in social services before pivoting to a different kind of service when she was in her 30s. She found one of her strengths was crisis intervention, and she was interested in becoming a paramedic. Now she helps lead the team.
“I always loved helping people and solving problems,” she said. “I found I wasn’t very suited to sitting at a desk all day, though.”
Anderson said she was never necessarily discouraged from working at the fire division, but it’s not a career path that she was encouraged to enter into.
“It’s a career that’s marketed to boys, to men,” she said. “It never occurred to me that it was something I could do.”
The emergency workers also shared what has changed since their start and barriers women sometimes face while working.
Morton said she took on one of her current off-the-clock passions — mixed martial arts — partly to show her male co-workers that she is in their corner and can defend herself and others. She was one of the first women at the Champaign County Sheriff’s Office to take on road patrol.
“I didn’t have it easy,” she said.
Morton, who is pregnant with her second child, said balancing her job and starting her young family has also been a learning experience. Pivoting from serving on the road and serving on a U.S. Marshal’s task force to being assigned to light duty in her local courthouse was an adjustment. She also could not attend certain training courses that dealt with firearms and the use of lead.
“That’s something I really enjoyed,” she said. “But I’m taking it as an opportunity to learn other things. I’m not giving up on my goals. I’ve worked hard for the things I have now. It’s definitely challenging.”
Benton said when she worked in corrections years back, she was asked during a job interview if she was planning on having a child in upcoming months.
“That was standard back in the day. You got those kinds of questions,” she said.
Benton said she once taught law enforcement courses that were primarily attended by men. Last semester, she had a class that was fully attended by young women.
And as more women seek careers at fire and police agencies, those agencies are working to adapt. The city of Springfield is engaging with the “30 by 30″ initiative, where police divisions are working to have women make up 30% of their workforces by 2030.
The Springfield Police Division recently renovated its locker room areas to accommodate women and add more bathroom space, for example. Sizing options for uniforms have and the style of gear officers carry have also expanded to help female officers be comfortable on the clock, Elliott said.
Elliott said women offer certain strengths to law enforcement.
“At the forefront, I try to exercise empathy and understanding,” she said. “I think sometimes we can have the characteristics to tap into people and reach people in ways others can’t.”
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