Only one zone commander in the fire brigade is a woman, but she stands her ground: “Photos of naked ladies? That is allowed, but the men’s calendar is also hanging here!” † Inland

Is the fire brigade the last man’s bastion? The fact is that there is no other professional category – let’s not consider priests for a moment – in which women are so underrepresented. There are 376 of them: that is only 2.17%. We ask Katrien De Maeyer (41) of the Zone Rand Fire Brigade (province of Antwerp) what the stumbling blocks are for a woman in the fire service, the first and as yet only female zone commander in the country.