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The first known female firefighter in the United States was in the early 1800s. She was an African American slave from New York, named Molly Williams, who was said to be "as good a fire laddie as many of the boys." In the 1820s, Marina Betts was a volunteer firefighter in Pittsburgh. Then, in 1863, Lillie Hitchcock was made an honorary member of the Knickerbocker Engine Company, No. 5., in San Francisco in 1863.

The first paid fire company was in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1853, and was all men. Women remained volunteer for years after. In the 1910s, there were women's volunteer fire companies in Silver Spring, Maryland, and Los Angeles, California.

During World War I, many women entered the workforce to replace the men who were fighting overseas. This resulted in thousands of women working in traditionally male-dominated professions, for example, the military hired approximately 11 000 women by 1918 for clerical work.

In 1936 Emma Vernell became the first official female firefighter in New Jersey, after her husband died in the line of duty.

During World War II, some women served as firefighters in the United States to replace male firefighters who joined the military; and during part of the war, two fire departments in Illinois were all-female. In 1942, the first all-female forest firefighting crew in California was created.

In the 1960s, there were all-female fire companies in Kings County, California, and Woodbine, Texas. During the summer of 1971, an all-female Bureau of Land Management (BLM) firefighting crew fought fires in the wilds of Alaska. Furthermore, an all-female United States Forest Service firefighting crew fought fires in 1971 and 1972 in Montana.

Ruth E. Capello was the first known female fire chief in the United States. She was born in 1922 and became fire chief of the Butte Falls fire department in Butte Falls, Oregon in 1973. She died at the age of 70 in 1992. Over 100 years after the first paid male firefighter, Sandra Forcier became the first known paid female firefighter (excluding forest firefighting) in the United States, and began working in North Carolina in 1973 for Winston-Salem Fire Department. Forcier was a Public Safety Officer, a combination of police officer and firefighter. The first woman to work solely as a paid firefighter (excluding forest firefighting) was Judith Livers, hired by the Arlington County, Virginia fire department in 1974.

Brenda Berkman took legal action against a discriminating physical test of the New York City Fire Department in 1982. After winning the case, women were allowed to join the New York City Fire Department; she and about 40 other women became the first female firefighters in the history of New York City. Berkman was also the founder of the United Women Firefighters and became the first openly gay person to be a paid firefighter.

Chief Rosemary Bliss was the first female head of a career fire department in Tiburon, California. She became fire chief in 1993.

In 2002, approximately 2% of all firefighters were female in the United States.

Sarinya Srisakul was the first Asian-American woman to be hired by the New York City Fire Department in 2005.

In 2013, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti vowed to make sure that 5% of the Los Angeles Fire Department's firefighters were women by 2020. As of 2018 3.1% of the department's firefighters are women.

In 2015, the New York City Fire Department had 58 women, representing less than 0.5% of the 10,000 active operational firefighters. Regina Wilson also became the first woman president of the Vulcan Society (African-American Firefighters Association).

As of 2016, 7% of firefighters in the United States were females