Fire Woman - Josephine Reynolds

Author: Rania Kurdi
Published: Tue 20 Jul 2021
Episode Link: https://shows.acast.com/breaking-free/episodes/fire-woman-josephine-reynolds

My guest this week is a woman who has challenged gender discrimination from a very young age when she questioned why she had to bake cakes and sew at school while the boys got to have fun learning wood and metal work ! She describes herself as the accidental feminist who became the first British female fighter at the age of seventeen back into 1982.

Josephine (Jo) Reynolds has had a life packed with incident and action which she writes about so humorously and eloquently in her book FIRE WOMAN. Her book provides a unique insight into the camaraderie that comes with risking your life on a daily basis and stands as the inspiring true story of an extraordinary young woman who took on what was supposed to be a man's world and won.

Today, we discuss how :

Why Jo seemed destined to become a firefighter (1:10)

How Jo was a rebellious teenager and grew up in Wales (4:00)

Jo applied to join the firefighting service, not realizing she was the first girl to do so until the press turned up! (5:04)

Challenging it was for Jo as a seventeen year old girl training to become a firefighter (8:33)

Jo finally Fittied in after passing her firefighter training and gaining respect of her peers. (18:18)

Jo's first real emergency on the job was a tragic accident that involved one of her closest friends. (21:15)

Jo leaves the service, travels and discovered a new passion (25:40)

Traveling to China and south East Asia lead Jo to find a new passion and purpose (32:40)

Connect with Jo:

https://www.josephine-reynolds.com/

https://www.facebook.com/SamuiJoReynolds/