Sarah King remembers one time when she was focusing on the day’s task of preparing an area of the Custer Gallatin National Forest in southwestern Montana to be burned to reduce the threat of future wildfire. Maintaining her balance, she carefully swung her large chainsaw over her baby bump and suddenly found herself contemplating the questions many moms-to-be ask, “Can I stay in this job? Can I be the mom I want to be?”

“I have chosen to exclusively breastfeed, but that is a full-time job – moms have multiple full-time jobs when raising little ones outside of any 40+ hour work week,” explained King, a new mom and wildland firefighter.

Across the nation women are faced with a difficult balancing act between their family and their career, referred to as the “mommy tax,” which is the concept that women in the workforce pay a price to have children. That equates to the societal, personal and financial toll taken on women when they become mothers.

“In Bozeman, not unlike many places around the nation, childcare costs more than I make, and then someone else is raising and spending that time with my kid,” King said.

Anecdotally, it’s women, more than men, who leave the wildland fire profession because of childcare costs – an issue seen across the entire U.S. labor market. The overall employment rate of mothers in 2024 remains far lower than that of fathers. But additional burdens on parents exist that are specific to wildland fire, like extensive travel with unpredictable hours, being gone from home for 14 to 21 days all summer long and working in remote areas out of cellular service.

For female wildland firefighters, far outnumbered by their male counterparts, the challenges of motherhood may be greater than in other professions. They have come to know this professional tug and pull. The time demanded of primary caregivers causes nearly a quarter of women to exit the labor market in their first year of motherhood. Some never return.

But now a group is trying to change that.

The recently established Women in Wildland Fire Advisory Council, led by Forest Service Program Manager, Jamey Toland, consists of 22 women of various ranks and organizational levels and geographic regions. The group wants to build programs that create greater workplace flexibilities for parents specifically in the wildland fire profession.

Toland remembers her struggles balancing motherhood with the demands of her job, a challenge familiar to many other mothers. She recalled what it was like coming back from maternity leave years ago:

“I went back for fall prescribed burning, but it quickly became apparent, I can’t be standing on the hillside and say, ‘Hey, can you go get my kid!?’ It stole my heart thinking, ‘How do I stay in fire and have time with my son?’”

However, her work was still important to her, and she was inspired to continue pursuing her career by her mentors and the women that served before her. She just needed to find the support to have both her career and her family.

Recently, the Women in Wildfire Program conducted a data collection effort primarily geared towards women who are in, or previously held, a position in wildland fire. The information provided by over 500 respondents, coupled with human resources data trends, provided insight to the factors contributing to women in fire who change career paths, depart the Forest Service or leave the wildland fire profession altogether.

They found that most women firefighters leave around their sixth or seventh year into the profession. That timing lines up almost exactly with the median age of childbirth for U.S. women: 30 years old.

However, some firefighter moms choose to stay and periodically fight wildfires while transitioning to other full-time work in complementary agency positions such as dispatch, fire information or budget administration. Others leave completely, seeking a different balance. But it comes with a price. They leave behind a part of their identity—their previous life filled with dirt, ash, sweat and long hours sleeping on the ground.

In Missoula, Montana, Megan McKinnie and her husband work in wildland fire and recently welcomed their third child. Now an assistant air tanker base manager, she has many fond memories of being a smokejumper before becoming a mom.

“Everyone did everything they could to welcome me,” McKinnie remarked on her career transition. “I also took pride in the smokejumper identity, but it was a stark contrast with being a mom.”

Guilt, emotional overload, fatigue, and identity change inherently comes for many moms navigating the career balance. Mothers instinctively understand the kiddos come first, but their dedication to family comes with impacts to career advancement.

“It can be an abrupt transition. Absolutely the babies come first – we know that. We are raising good humans and I look at it as I am my own incident commander of these little humans, but it can be at times a less glamorous front,” McKinnie said.

Women are more likely to experience childcare-related career disruptions, sometimes adversely affecting their career trajectories and earning potential. Now this network of mothers and women in wildland fire are working on solutions. They are asking what it would look like if we tried to keep women in wildland fire? What would wildland firefighting look like with more women involved?

“It’s such a bummer to lose well-qualified women with experience in this line of work, because we haven’t been able to figure it out. What if there was some sort of program for the younger childrearing years that supported new parents through this transition in life?” McKinnie asked.

In their search for solutions the Women in Wildland Fire Advisory Council also works to identify the factors that lead mothers to stay. Things like a supportive partner, robust flexibility in childcare options and the ability to maintain their qualifications without extended periods away from home all help.

And sometimes, it is simply just having a strong network of support that makes the biggest difference.

“The biggest struggle I’ve personally had is learning how to ask for help. I don’t have to do it all,” King shared. “As I’ve continued to navigate this period of life, I also see how culturally asking for help can relate to our jobs as well.”

She further explained that women in wildland fire don’t need to be supermom or extremely superhuman fit or tough all the time. King believes we all have something we are navigating, and hopefully we can mentor and do our job tasks to the best of our ability while building a culture of women that complements motherhood and raising children. She is hopeful for a cultural change taking hold.

As the Women in Wildland Fire Advisory Council continues to work, they know women can be mothers and have a career within wildland fire. And if they come together, women supporting each other can think of new ways to support parents, recognize the multidimensional aspects of the wildland firefighter identity and pave new paths for future female wildland firefighters.