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Article

Who Is the “Ideal” Peer Support Trainer? Peer Trainers’ Perceptions of Gender Dynamics in Resiliency Training for Firefighters and Correctional Officers

by
Joy C. MacDermid
1,2,3,4,*,
Amber J. Fletcher
5,6,
Shannon C. Killip
1,4,
Amanda Brazil
7,
Rosemary Ricciardelli
8 and
Robin Campbell Bromhead
1
1
School of Physical Therapy, Faculty of Health Sciences, Western University, London, ON N6A 3K7, Canada
2
Department of Surgery, Schulich Medicine & Dentistry, St. Joseph’s Hospital, Western University, London, ON N6A 4V2, Canada
3
Clinical Research Lab, Roth McFarlane Hand and Upper Limb Centre, St. Joseph’s Health Centre, London, ON N6A 4V2, Canada
4
School of Rehabilitation Science, Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON L8S 4L8, Canada
5
Department of Sociology & Social Studies, Faculty of Arts, University of Regina, Regina, SK S4S 0A2, Canada
6
Community Engagement and Research Centre, Faculty of Arts, University of Regina, Regina, SK S4S 0A2, Canada
7
Department of Education, Faculty of Education, University of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, PEI C1A 4P3, Canada
8
School of Maritime Studies, Fisheries and Marine Institute, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, NL A1C 5R3, Canada
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Occup. Health 2026, 1(1), 10; https://doi.org/10.3390/occuphealth1010010
Submission received: 19 December 2025 / Revised: 7 February 2026 / Accepted: 24 February 2026 / Published: 27 February 2026
Browse Figure
Review Reports Versions Notes

Abstract

Firefighters and correctional workers are highly exposed to potentially traumatic events, but research shows that resiliency training may help support their mental health. Both occupations remain men-dominated and highly masculinized, creating challenges for women public safety personnel (PSP) and reinforcing stigma about mental health as a feminized topic. This exploratory qualitative study examines the gender dynamics of peer resiliency training for firefighters and correctional officers in Canada. Based on interviews with 10 trainers from three provinces, we developed three key themes. First, mental health is constructed as a “feminine” topic, which may create access barriers for men, but also for women who wish to avoid marginalization. Second, gendered beliefs shape perceptions of trainers’ credibility and skills. Men trainers are respected for performing masculinity, while respect for women trainers stems from stereotypes about their maternal “nature”. Such beliefs may increase respect for mental health topics while further entrenching gendered stereotypes. Third, a gender stereotyping paradox exists regarding the roles of women in these occupations. That is, mental health training may provide a leadership pathway for women PSP while simultaneously “pigeonholing” them into emotional-labour roles. We conclude that peer resiliency training is best positioned as the responsibility of both men and women.

1. Introduction

Public safety personnel (PSP), including firefighters and correctional officers, are exposed to stressful and traumatic situations at work, which contribute to operational stress [1,2,3]. These situations may include fires, physical or sexual assaults, being threatened, being required to use force in non-training situations, accidents or actions leading to death, and failed rescue attempts [1,3,4,5]. For example, an exposure prevalence study of Canadian firefighters published in 2020 found 96% of the sample had witnessed at least one critical incident at work [6]. A similar study in Canadian volunteer firefighters published in 2017 also found most (92%) of the sample had witnessed multiple critical incidents [7]. The prevalence of critical incidents has also been studied among United States correctional workers, where 59% of the sample was exposed to critical incidents, including violence, threats of violence, or witnessing someone die [5]. A study of psychologically traumatic events in Canadian correctional officers identified a lifetime exposure of 7.8 traumatic exposures, with 95% of the study’s sample reporting being threatened and 71% of the sample reporting being required to use force [3].
Organizational stressors can also affect the mental health of PSP. These stressors include staff shortages, difficulties balancing work and family life, a lack of resources at work, inconsistent leadership, co-worker conflict, workplace harassment, discrimination, and even sexual assault [2,8,9,10]. Because of these exposures, PSP are at a risk of compromised mental health, including a high prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder, major depressive disorder, and general anxiety disorder [1,2,3,11,12]. A study published in 2018 exploring mental health in Canadian PSP identified that 44.5% of the sample had clinically significant mental health symptoms [11]. Studies have shown higher rates of mental health issues in PSP compared to the general population [2,12].
Exposures to stress and traumatic incidents are unpredictable and difficult to prevent in public safety occupations. PSP must therefore learn positive coping strategies and build their resilience, which is defined as the ability to overcome critical incidents by using coping skills and resources to preserve overall wellness [13,14,15,16,17]. A meta-analysis published in 2015 of 60 empirical studies on trait resiliency, defined as a personal trait that assists with coping during and after traumatic events, found that low levels of resiliency were associated with higher rates of mental health issues [18]. Resiliency training, exercise, mindfulness, and social support interventions may be effective for increasing PSP resiliency, coping and stress management abilities [19,20,21,22,23]. Resiliency interventions in the workplace, such as exercise, mindfulness, and training, can reduce stress and fatigue, and improve coping abilities, quality of life, mood, mental health, and well-being [19,21,23,24,25]. Resiliency training can increase self-efficacy, psychological well-being [21,25] and mental health knowledge [23,26], and decrease burnout [22,27], mental health stigma [23,26], and compromised mental health among PSP [20,27]. Conversely, a study reviewing the applicability of mental health training in Canadian correctional officers identified that using the coping techniques at work could lead to being teased by co-workers [28]. The authors identified the correctional officer work culture as likely resistant to mental health training [28].
Although mental health symptoms are generally more prevalent in women [29,30], men are less likely to disclose or address their mental health needs [31,32,33]. Men are more reluctant to seek help from professionals for their mental health [31,34], which may be related to masculine stereotypes, behaviours, and societal norms [32,34,35,36]. Men also typically have lower mental health literacy [37,38] and are less willing to discuss mental health-related topics [33,39]. A study in Polish men firefighters published in 2021 identified that probable PTSD was linked to strictly complying with stereotypical male norms such as the need to be tough in all situations [36]. Another study of firefighters in Ecuador reported women had higher levels of psychological well-being and emotional regulation, favoring cognitive reappraisal, compared to men, who often preferred emotional suppression [40]. Due to lower levels of mental health literacy combined with societal masculine norms, men might be more affected by mental health stigmas, especially in work environments historically dominated by men [33,36].
Mental health stigma can also negatively affect a person’s likelihood of seeking professional help [33,34,41]. Workplace mental health interventions may help address mental health issues in the workplace, reduce stigma, promote help-seeking, and improve mental health literacy [23,26,42,43]. Although mental health problems are prominent among PSP, PSP are found to be reluctant to disclose their struggles and less likely to seek help for their mental health [36,44]. Research suggests workplace culture, mental health stigma, and fears of being seen negatively by co-workers prevent help-seeking [44,45]. In a study of PSP mental health knowledge published in 2020, firefighters reported being the least likely to seek help for their mental health [46]. These firefighters also reported having the highest level of mental health stigma and the lowest level of mental health knowledge compared to other PSP—they are also the most men-dominated of all public safety fields [46]. For these reasons, providing mental health training to firefighters and other PSP is essential.
Many public safety occupations, such as firefighting, are men-dominated in part due to the physical demands of the work [47,48,49,50]. In this context, women firefighters may be considered ‘the token women’ in the workplace and may experience bullying, discrimination, or harassment from their coworkers [47,48,49,51,52], leaving them segregated from their men colleagues [48,49,52]. Sex and gender stereotypes associating men with physical strength may encourage the belief that men perform physically demanding firefighting tasks more effectively [48,49,51,52]. Women firefighters have reported they constantly need to prove themselves at work due to their smaller average body sizes and gender discrimination [47,52], and are not always given equal consideration for career advancement [51].
Women correctional officers have also reported similar challenges, such as being discriminated against and feeling a need to prove themselves at work [53,54], although other research suggests new officers in general, not just women, may experience this phenomenon [55]. Historically, the roles women officers performed were occupied by men, with women only entering the correctional officer field in the 1980s in North America [56,57,58]. Due to the historical prevalence of public safety work being masculinized, and the associated potential for gender discrimination, exploring how gender dynamics can affect the roles performed in these workplaces is warranted. Research suggests mental health stigma may affect men more than women [33], and resiliency training may help with mental health concerns experienced by PSP [20,21,22,23,25,26]; therefore, exploring the gender dynamics of resiliency training in public safety workplaces is necessary.
The purpose of this interpretivist exploratory qualitative study was to examine if resiliency trainers note any gendered dynamics during the delivery of mental health resiliency training for firefighters and correctional workers, and to understand if/how gender shapes perceptions of trainers or the provision of training. Examining gender dynamics may identify barriers and facilitators of mental health training, which could support the reduction in stigma and potentially increase access to supports for PSP who are highly exposed to traumatic situations. Our study’s purpose and methodology were guided by the following research questions:
  • Does gender affect resiliency training for firefighters and correctional officers, based on the experiences and perceptions of peer support trainers?
  • What are the effects of gender on resiliency training for firefighters and correctional officers, based on the experiences and perceptions of peer support trainers?

2. Materials and Methods

2.1. Study Purpose and Design

This study is part of a larger group of studies examining different aspects of resiliency training in firefighters and other PSP. The current exploratory qualitative study was guided by an interpretivist philosophy [59] using a gender lens, and employed reflexive thematic analysis using inductive coding [60,61,62,63]. Interpretivist philosophy acknowledges the ongoing (re)construction of social phenomena, such as gendered behaviours and stereotypes, through social interaction and interpretation [59,64,65,66,67,68]. The process of meaning-making is understood to shape actions [68,69], which can reinforce or challenge both material and ideational gendered inequities. Our research examined the operation of gendered perceptions, beliefs, and behaviours to understand their influence on mental health resiliency training, thus reflecting the interpretivist focus on epistemology. We analyzed how trainers understand any gender dynamics at play during peer resilience training; whether/how gendered schemas or stereotypes contribute to the construction of an “ideal” trainer; and whether/how gender dynamics affect training participation in these highly men-dominated professions. We examine how trainers interpret and understand the social relations inherent in resiliency training using ideational structures like gender stereotypes [68,70]. Using a gender lens within an interpretivist analysis helps us examine how gender shapes contextual interpretations and social interactions in ways that can be disempowering, empowering, or both.

2.2. Sampling, Recruitment, and Consent

We used purposive sampling to recruit trainers from two resiliency programs (Resilient Minds and Road to Mental Readiness), who provided training to firefighters and correctional officers in three Canadian provinces (British Columbia, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Prince Edward Island). At the time of participant recruitment, a total of 13 trainers operated in these two programs and three locations. The trainers were known to us through our networks (i.e., FIREWELL, which is a health and wellness community for firefighters [71]) and had been part of previous resiliency training studies with our research team. All 13 trainers who conduct these resiliency training programs were contacted by the research team and, of these, 10 participated. We received ethics approval from the Hamilton Integrated Research Ethics Board (project #4390). We obtained informed consent from all the participants before they participated in the interviews. After reviewing the transcripts and the data collected to answer our research questions, we determined that a sample of 10 participants gave sufficient information power [72,73], rather than trying to justify saturation, which can be difficult in exploratory qualitative research [72,74], given our small pool of resiliency peer trainers to recruit from. We considered different criteria for determining information power and data sufficiency to support a smaller sample size such as our choice of interpretivist qualitative methods [59]. Our research aims were relatively narrow, our sample was specific to our research aims, our interview guide was developed to specifically ask about the impacts of gender, and an experienced interviewer with expertise in gender studies provided follow-up questions to participants when needed [72,73]. We determined that data sufficiency to answer our research questions was achieved as the 10 trainers provided similar perceptions and experiences related to the impacts of gender within peer training, which could be grouped into common categories and themes to answer our research question [72,75].

2.3. Data Collection

We developed a semi-structured interview guide (please see Supplementary Materials Document S1 for the interview guide) to understand participants’ perspectives on important trainer characteristics, their perceptions of any gender dynamics during training, and any potential impacts of gender on mental health training. Questions were organized into several themes, including training delivery (e.g., what constitutes an ideal trainer); individual-level interactions (e.g., perceptions of and experiences with other trainers), and group-level interactions (e.g., factors affecting how trainees respond to training). An experienced interviewer (Author 2) performed all 10 semi-structured interviews by telephone. The interviewer also kept field notes to identify emerging ideas and considerations for the thematic analysis. We recorded the interviews using a handheld digital recording device, transcribed the interviews verbatim, and corrected inaccuracies in the transcripts as needed.

2.4. Data Analysis

The analysis followed Braun & Clarke’s reflexive thematic analysis approach [60,61,62,63]. Reflexive thematic analysis aligns with an interpretivist philosophical framework, emphasizing the role of the researchers in creating and generating themes [59,61]. Our analysis was shaped by our own positionality as women-identifying researchers with academic expertise in occupational health and public safety (Authors 1,3–6), gender analysis (Authors 2,5) and experience as a woman firefighter (Author 4). The analysis followed the methods described by Braun and Clarke [60,61,62] for inductive coding and reflexive thematic analysis, which involved iterative cycles through the data, developing codes and themes to represent the data with respect to the research question [63]. We reviewed the transcripts, created codes inductively in Microsoft Word, grouped similar codes together in an Excel codebook to generate initial themes, and discussed the themes among research team members, where we reflected on the different ways the themes were presented in the codes, returning to the data when needed to refine the themes [62,63]. We also extracted quotes from the transcripts that represented the themes. All codes, categories, themes and quotes were organized in an Excel spreadsheet. One researcher (Author 3) performed the analysis independently and consulted with the research team at each step of the thematic analysis process to confirm that the themes were representative of the findings. Members of the research team reviewed the transcripts, codes and themes, triangulating the findings based on their expertise in the fields of public safety and gender studies. It is important to note that throughout this paper, we use the language of gender (e.g., women/men) rather than sex (e.g., female/male). At times during the interviews, participants’ quotations reflected a conflation of gender and sex terminology. We have opted to leave their words unchanged, but reiterate our analytical focus on gender throughout this paper.

3. Results

We interviewed 10 mental health program trainers (3 men, 7 women) who taught the Resilient Minds program (n = 6) or the Road to Mental Readiness (R2MR) program (n = 4) to firefighters or correctional officers in Newfoundland and Labrador (n = 4), Prince Edward Island (n = 3), and British Columbia (n = 3). Of the 4 participants who performed the R2MR training for correctional officers, 3 participants work as correctional officers, and 1 participant works for a not-for-profit agency associated with prisons. Of the 6 participants who performed the Resilient Minds training for firefighters, 5 had worked as firefighters, and 2 worked professionally on mental health.
The participants described many mental health risk factors associated with their work, such as repeated occupational exposures to traumas. They explained how individuals’ level of resilience and coping abilities affected their risk of mental health challenges, which is why resiliency training was thought beneficial for PSP. Conversely, some participants believed that many firefighters and correctional officers were reluctant to participate in the training due to mental health stigma and a ‘macho mentality’, the latter referring to a tough persona portrayed by firefighters or correctional officers wherein they do not share their feelings. Six participants suggested that PSP leaders needed to better support and participate in the mental health training to encourage authentic participation from their peers. Four participants explained that some members of leadership seemed to have a negative view of mental health and were unsupportive of the training. It is important to note that the resiliency training programs we studied are in-person training programs (i.e., the peer trainers are provided with the content to perform lecture-style teaching with some interactive components). The training was offered as an optional training in some situations, and mandatory in other situations (see our Resilient Minds (RM) implementation paper for more details on the delivery of the RM program [23]).
We generated three themes on how gender influenced mental health training: 1. Mental health is seen as feminine in firefighting and correctional services; 2. Gendered beliefs influence perceptions of trainers’ credibility and teaching skills; and 3. A gender stereotyping paradox exists, wherein mental health training may provide an opportunity for women PSP, but may simultaneously reinforce their marginalization at work and the feminization of mental health (Table 1).

3.1. Theme 1: Mental Health Is Seen as Feminine in Firefighting and Correctional Services

Both corrections officers and firefighters discussed how mental health could be stigmatized in their occupations or seen as a “soft” (i.e., equating soft to feminine) topic (Figure 1). Four participants explained how feelings may be seen as a weakness, which could cause men to have trouble discussing their mental health compared to women. They believed men were more influenced by mental health stigma and had an ‘old-school mentality’ which made them less willing to participate in resiliency training:
“And as much as there were males in our program, it’s really hard for a lot of our males due to stigma to actually come out and teach it, let alone talk about mental health. I work in Corrections, and it’s a dinosaur environment, so it’s extremely archaic. Stigma is still very much a real thing.”
(Man trainer)
Further, three participants noted that when the training was optional, there was a higher relative proportion of women trainees participating in the resiliency training:
“A department that has 25 people may have four women and you’ll get nine people sign up [for resiliency training] and all four of the women.”
(Woman trainer)
Beyond affecting the composition of the trainee group, gender also appeared to play a role in trainees’ experiences during the training. Five participants perceived women as typically more interested in learning about the mental health content. When the resiliency training was mandatory, five participants described how men were more likely to appear uninterested and unengaged. Six participants were concerned that older men, whom they perceived as less likely to attend or listen to the resiliency training, are those who may be the most affected by cumulative traumas and stressors. However, seven participants believed that trainees’ receipt of resiliency content was more likely to be shaped by personal experiences, age, years of experience, rank, and level of education, rather than gender.
Four participants described how women in firefighting may also be affected by mental health stigma, and may often feel they must act tough. Two participants mentioned some women firefighters did not appear to want to talk about mental health in front of men firefighters to avoid being seen as “weak”. This suggests that physicality in body and personality was rewarded in firefighting, further emphasizing the need to portray a tough persona to be accepted (Figure 1). One participant believed women firefighters would be more comfortable talking about mental health and emotions with other women:
“When it comes to doing like actual mental health work, yeah, you need to separate the group… if you have a group full of just women people will open up, they won’t when there’s men in the room—guaranteed.”
(Woman trainer)
This excerpt shows how the power dynamics between men and women may discourage women firefighters from discussing their mental health around men firefighters, to avoid being marginalized for being ‘weak women’. On the other hand, one participant did mention benefits to having both men and women trainees in the same group because men firefighters seemed to behave more respectfully, suggesting a potentially positive, albeit context-specific, gendered effect.
Mental health stigma did extend outside of mental health training, as some participants believed that PSP had difficulties admitting that they were struggling with mental health. Based on a personal experience, one participant explained how correctional officers might be afraid to disclose their mental health needs because they worried about being teased by co-workers or were concerned about implications for their job:
“When I came out and said that I had PTSD, [management] immediately wanted me to remove myself from the [Emergency Response] team… It comes to not trusting their managers, too, which is huge. Because a lot of people are feeling they’re afraid to death to be ridiculed.”
(Man trainer)
This quote highlights the negative impacts mental health stigma can have on the workplace and workplace culture. The impacts of stigma are two-fold: firstly, firefighters and correctional officers may hide their mental health issues due to fear of disclosure, and secondly, it can create a culture of mistrust between co-workers and members of leadership.
Moreover, firefighter trainers believed men firefighters had to maintain their image of toughness and not appear affected by traumatic calls. One participant explained how the men in her fire department would check on her after difficult calls because they assumed she would be more affected. She suggested this helped the men avoid processing their own traumas:
“I used to notice that if I was really disturbed by a call or even if I wasn’t, the men would–it would give the men a place to focus their attention. Like, ‘are you OK’?”
(Woman trainer)
In this excerpt, we see how men firefighters may rely on gendered stereotypes and beliefs as a coping mechanism, affecting how they process trauma while maintaining their image of toughness.
Although the ‘old-school mentality’, ‘macho mentality’ and mental health stigma are likely still prominent in firefighting and correctional services, eight of the ten participants mentioned how these mentalities and stigmas appear to slowly be changing. They believed the change was due to the retirement of older members, and new recruits, including women and younger men, did not have the same ‘old-school’ beliefs about mental stigma.
Overall, participants highlighted the impacts of mental health stigma and the notion of mental health as a “soft” or feminine topic on resiliency training and PSP mental health. It is important to note that these notions and stigmas associated with mental health are present within the following two themes, as they influence the credibility of peer resiliency trainers and create a gender stereotyping paradox which views resiliency training as a “niche” role for women in PSP occupations (Figure 1).

3.2. Theme 2: Gendered Beliefs Influence Perceptions of Trainers’ Credibility and Teaching Skills

Participants felt that trainer credibility was key to effectively teaching resilience training to PSP (Figure 1). Eight participants explained that personality, mental health knowledge, and teaching experience had more of an effect on perceptions of credibility than gender:
“The content is there, so like I think equally male and female can deliver it well. I think that if you’re a good facilitator and you’re invested in the content–and like I said, you have some mental health awareness and that sensitivity piece, I think you can do a great job… That comes down to the personality of the individual, not so much gender.”
(Woman trainer)
All the participants saw credible trainers as knowledgeable in mental health (e.g., member of a mental health organization, a mental health researcher, a PSP who is a mental health champion in the department, and a PSP with personal mental health struggles). Peer trainers, such as an experienced firefighter or correctional officer, were often recommended because they were respected, trusted, relatable and could provide occupation-specific examples, which added to their credibility. Eight participants recommended trainers be able to speak about their own mental health experiences or traumatic exposures, as this seemed to make the mental health content more believable, and appeared to help others become more accepting of the mental health content. Six participants also recommended that, to be “believable”, trainers needed to be passionate about mental health, and be well-prepared to teach the course:
“If you’re confident, believable and passionate about what you’re teaching, I think you can teach anything… Somebody who’s believable is somebody who almost, they have the knowledge, they know the material… I really think the believable part of it is for me, is it’s somebody who walks the walk and can talk the talk at the same time.”
(Man trainer)
Although not directly reported by all participants, notions of credibility did appear to be shaped by gender (Figure 1). Women trainers were described as credible for different reasons than men trainers. They believed that men trainers could help men trainees become open to the mental health content, and thought that this helped trainees realize mental health problems can affect anyone. These discussions often drew on stereotyped gendered characteristics, equating male physical attributes (i.e., body size) to gendered traits such as toughness and strength:
“I have one fellow that had counselling, had a breakdown, and he was quite willing to participate… He was excellent giving [the training] because he is your 35-year, 270-pound, you know, tough man that is always a perfect example to use for the situation, because everybody looked at him as, you know, a real tough character that’s fought fires for years… And as a result of him speaking about it, you know, it certainly added weight to the whole program… because it’s still like you don’t think that this could happen to this person, and it did.”
(Woman trainer)
They explained how a man trainer helped avoid making the content feel too “soft” or feminine, alluding to the influence of mental health stigma on trainer credibility (Figure 1), and identifying how men trainers seemed to have the power to influence men trainees:
“I do think that women can lead. However, I think it’s important, I think it’s extremely important that we have men leading [the resiliency training] as well because the problem becomes if women lead it then men will continue to see it as a female thing, as a soft skill that they see as feminine.”
(Woman trainer)
Using a similar rationale, three participants argued that women’s perceived “maternal” or “caring” characteristics caused women to be respected as trainers. Five participants believed women were seen as credible resiliency trainers because men firefighters and correctional officers often saw mental health as a “feminine” topic. They believed women were more comfortable talking about mental health, implying men saw women as more knowledgeable in mental health and better able to understand the resiliency training content.
Although some participants deemphasized the importance of gender, they still identified benefits to having both men and women trainers. While such gendered beliefs may be used strategically to de-stigmatize mental health topics, or to draw men into mental health programming, it may have the adverse side effect of entrenching problematic stereotypes about both men and women (Figure 1). Beliefs about women as “soft” can further perpetuate women’s marginalization in public safety professions, and beliefs about men as “tough” can reinforce hegemonically masculine beliefs embedded in PSP culture. Accommodating, rather than challenging, gendered stereotypes may perpetuate the root causes of occupational problems, albeit while helping with mental health stigma. In the following theme, we explore how these gender stereotypes are allowing women to become more involved in PSP roles, while also marginalizing them in more stereotypically “feminine” roles.

3.3. Theme 3: A Gender Stereotyping Paradox Exists in These Male-Dominated Occupations

We identified a paradox in which gender stereotypes and gendered perceptions of mental health may create an entry point or leadership opportunity for women in men-dominated professions, while simultaneously reinforcing the same stereotypes that have created gendered barriers (Figure 1). Participants noted that a high relative proportion of peer trainers were women. They asserted resiliency training could be seen as a potential “niche” for women to become more involved in men-dominated PSP occupations; however, this assertion was often couched in stereotypical terms. For example, when describing women as well-suited for resiliency training, six respondents relied on stereotypically feminine characteristics such as being maternal, caring, emotional, sensitive, empathetic, less impacted by mental health stigma, and more open to talking about mental health. A woman firefighter trainer felt trainees will respect women trainers because of their perceived “maternal” approach:
“I think the maternal instinct for women is always there when it comes to a bunch of men, you know, and you’re kind of like the mother so there’s a little bit of respect there from most.”
(Women trainer)
This excerpt highlights how women resiliency trainers may gain credibility based on stereotypically maternal characteristics, further emphasizing the stigmatized views of mental health as feminine. Three participants also thought that women should teach resiliency courses because they assumed men would not want to perform this role, due to the feminization of mental health. Women were thought to be more accepting of mental health content.
Furthermore, gender stereotypes played a role in training for other courses that involved more physical or masculine topics such as ‘Use of Force’ courses for correctional officers or ‘Auto Extrication’ for firefighters. Three participants (1 man, 2 women) believed women may not be taken seriously when teaching physical topics due to gender stereotypes:
“I’m going to get way more buy-in and participation and support from the same group of men that if I’m teaching them a subject like Resilient Minds versus a subject like auto extrication.”
(Woman trainer)
A correctional officer participant believed women trainers would have to be strong, confident, and have a particular personality to be taken seriously when teaching physical courses. Although some men were willing to teach mental health and resiliency courses, four participants explained men preferred to teach physical courses. One trainer described how, due to gender stereotypes, a man trainer might be more well-received when teaching topics like ’Use of Force’:
“…that male stereotype that the males know the material better, their size. It’s such a gender thing. Yeah, I think the males know the contents better, can teach it better. At the end of the day if they were having an incident with an offender, that they would be better capable of handling it. So, I think a lot of the little-just the gender stereotypes that might come into play.”
(Woman trainer)
Moreover, three firefighter participants mentioned characteristics historically associated with women were becoming more beneficial to firefighting, not only for mental health training but also for the increasing number of medical emergency response calls:
“The work of fire is changing to become more female or more gendered… We’re not kicking in doors, but we’re providing that one-on-one medical response… With more women in the service, with the focus on mental health, with the focus on medical calls, the male-dominated duties are starting to dwindle.”
(Woman trainer)
This excerpt shows how the nature of firefighting is changing from physically demanding tasks, such as fire response, to tasks that require care and empathy. During the medical calls, firefighters may be required to provide emotional support to patients after a traumatic incident, or to address the mental health issues of patients. Three participants believed women firefighters were performing these roles more frequently as they involved stereotypical feminine characteristics, and therefore were not roles men seemed readily willing or comfortable to perform. They also believed that men could be seen by civilians as intimidating, making them less suited for medical calls:
“I’m finding with our three girls [sic] that we have, they’re very good on the medical side. They seem to be even better on the medical side because they’re petite, they’re not really big women, and kids seem to take to them, female victims and that definitely take to them. And I find they have a good sense of communication when they’re talking to these people… On the medical side, I think they were ahead of [men firefighters] a little bit because they have a way of talking to victims. And when they approach a victim, because of their size, it’s not like a great, big, burly firefighter coming there with a scruffy voice.”
(Man trainer)
This quote explores how both sex-specific physical traits (i.e., smaller body size) and gender-specific characteristics (i.e., empathy and communication style) can influence how firefighters are seen by civilians during medical calls, as women were viewed as more approachable.

4. Discussion

The findings of this study suggest, despite a common pretext of neutrality, mental health resiliency training for PSP is shaped by gender dynamics and stereotypes. Trainers did not always directly acknowledge the role of gender, focusing initially on characteristics like credibility and teaching effectiveness. However, the data show credibility may, in fact, be gendered, and gender dynamics affect mental health training in important ways.
Many participants believed historically feminized characteristics like empathy were beneficial for women resiliency trainers, making women “believable” when presenting mental health content. Participants also explained the importance of being open to discussing personal mental health experiences and feelings, which was a characteristic more commonly associated with women. In the literature, women firefighters have been shown to have skills that are of value to firefighting, such as being better able to understand their own feelings and the feelings of others after incidents, better able to discuss these feelings with others, and better able to regulate their emotions [40,48,52]. Participants in our study also believed women were more suited to be resiliency trainers because men were less likely to want the role. This has been supported by studies showing men typically have lower mental health literacy levels, are less likely to want to discuss mental health topics or their own mental health issues, and are more impacted by mental health stigma [31,32,33,36,37,39,40].
Because men may be reluctant to perform resiliency training roles, some participants in our study believed mental health training was a niche role for women, emphasizing gender did affect resiliency training. The interview data reveal an interesting paradox in which gender stereotypes—which have historically served as a foundation for women’s exclusion from PSP occupations—may inadvertently provide a point of entry or niche for women into these occupations, especially as public attention to mental health grows. The involvement of women in firefighting and correctional services may be beneficial to the advancements in mental health initiatives and the reduction in mental health stigma because women may be more willing than men to perform resiliency peer trainer roles.
However, the utilization of such stereotypes may simultaneously reinforce them. Many studies have identified how women in firefighting and correctional services are segregated and discriminated against at work due to sexism and androcentrism [47,48,51,53,54]. Due to the negative stereotypes and marginalization of women in men-dominated public safety occupations [48,49,51,76,77] and the ongoing stigma surrounding mental health in PSP occupations [44,45], positioning mental health leadership as “women’s work” could contribute to women’s further marginalization and pigeonholing of women into emotional-labour tasks. This aligns with studies on gender in policing and firefighting, which found gendered stereotypes may narrow women’s scope of work to less physically demanding tasks [52], emotionally intensive tasks like victim support [10] or roles where stereotypical feminine abilities will be most useful [51]. Further, participants noted that women’s over-representation in mental health training can further reinforce the notion of mental health as feminized, thus reinforcing men’s reluctance to seek help. Future research should explore how women in public safety occupations are respected or marginalized when performing different roles in their workplaces.
Conversely, many participants mentioned the importance of having a man trainer present at the resiliency training to make the men trainees more open to the mental health content, by making the content less stigmatized. Mental health stigma is prominent in public safety occupations and has been identified as a barrier to care seeking in PSP [44,45]. A qualitative study published in 2020 reviewing mental health stigma found that PSP believed their coworkers with mental health challenges were abusing the treatment and compensation systems by making false mental health claims [44]. Because men are typically more impacted by mental health stigma and are less willing to talk about their emotions and mental health [33,34,36,39,40], it may be helpful to have a man co-present the resiliency training to promote engagement of the men trainees. However, this raises the question of whether men’s involvement, used strategically to ‘legitimize’ mental health topics, may further devalue characteristics associated with femininity and entrench stereotypes that reinforce structural barriers for women PSP and masculinized work cultures [10]. Our findings indicate that while gender dynamics affect resiliency training, such training should not be narrowly construed as the responsibility of a particular gender. By having both a man and a woman perform the resiliency training together, there could be more engagement from all trainees, leading to more successful training outcomes. Further research is needed to explore how gender influences the acceptance of mental health training amongst trainees in men-dominated occupations, and the implications of this acceptance for gendered belief systems more broadly.
Gender stereotypes did not always apply during resiliency training. Participants in our study identified how some men were able to ignore the macho mentality and gender stereotypes at work as they felt comfortable talking about mental health, making them effective resiliency trainers. Some participants also explained there are women firefighters who act tough, and do not want to discuss mental health topics, making them less willing to become resiliency trainers. Previous research shows some women in firefighting and policing may enact masculinity to be accepted by their co-workers or to conform to the work culture [10,47,52,78,79], and this performance of masculinity may discourage mental health awareness in the workplace. In our study, we also found women correctional officers were taken more seriously when teaching about physical tasks if they embodied masculine characteristics such as physical strength, confidence, and strong personalities. A study published in 2020 found women correctional officers may downplay femininity to be accepted in their masculine work environment [80]. Our findings suggest women in men-dominated PSP roles may navigate complex gender dynamics and expectations, in which femininity proves beneficial for some tasks but is less valued in general operations.
Outside of resiliency training, participants in our study discussed how gender affected their work as PSP in general. Many participants admitted the gender of the trainer was more important for courses involving physical tasks. They explained the training of physical tasks was more “believable” when men performed the training due to perceptions of physical strength associated with men and masculinity. Stereotypical views of many public safety occupations see these roles as masculine, requiring high physical strength to perform the required duties safely [10,48,51,52,53]. Women firefighters are often stereotyped as weak, or unable to do physical tasks without the help of a man firefighter [52,77]. Because of these gender stereotypes and the traditionally masculine work, some participants mentioned that women teaching physical courses were not taken seriously by the trainees. A lack of trust in women firefighters and correctional officers to be able to perform physical tasks has been reported by their men coworkers [48,52,53,76], which further emphasizes our findings that women may not be taken seriously in male-dominated public safety occupations when performing physical tasks. Unfortunately, stereotypes continue to constrain women’s participation and credibility in key areas of PSP work [51].
In our study, being a woman was seen as beneficial for firefighters when they were responding to certain emergency calls. There is a misconception that firefighters only perform fire suppression, but firefighters perform many other roles [52,76,81]. Participants in our study explained how the increase in medical calls has increased the potential roles for women in a fire department. Qualitative studies on the experiences of women firefighters identified similar findings, as they believed historically feminine qualities were needed in firefighting, such as responding to medical incidents and helping them relate better to bushfire victims [48,52]. One study, published in 2014, concluded that in certain situations, feminine characteristics may produce more effective firefighters [48]. The other study acknowledged that men and women firefighters both have strengths and weaknesses, identifying the importance of having women firefighters within firefighting [52]. A qualitative study of the experiences of women in correctional services also found that a calm and compassionate demeanour—often associated with femininity—may help defuse situations with prison residents more effectively than physical force [54]. This study also identified how women correctional officers were effective in mentoring and rehabilitation [54]. Although many women in men-dominated occupations feel the need to conform to more masculine behaviours [53,54], characteristics associated with femininity may prove important and successful in PSP work. Conceptualizing gender as performative and fluid, rather than inherent or linked to sex, suggests both women and men can enact such characteristics as required by the situation to be effective in their work.

Limitations

We acknowledge the lack of transferability of our findings outside of our sample due to our small sample size and specific population of interest, likely limiting the results to men-dominated PSP occupations in the Canadian context. We believe our findings could be relevant to other men-dominated occupations and other PSP occupations in different countries, although future research should explore these gender dynamics. We selected a sample size of convenience due to the small number of resiliency peer trainers who have provided Resilient Minds or Road to Mental Readiness in public safety occupations in Canada. Overall, 10 of the 13 resiliency peer trainers participated in our study. We believe our sample size and the rich gender-related data we collected were adequate to provide information sufficient to answer our research questions in this exploratory qualitative study [72,73]. We chose to look at data sufficiency to answer our research questions rather than saturation as saturation can be difficult to quantify in exploratory qualitative research [72,74]. Our results may also be biased as participants may not have provided their true opinions given the nature of the questions being asked, or participants may have provided biased responses based on the purpose of our study [82,83]. We acknowledge the qualitative methods we used may lead to biased results because the interpretivist approach allows for the co-creation of information based on the researchers’ existing knowledge of the topic and the participants’ opinions and experiences [66,84]. Lastly, we only studied the perspectives of peer trainers, who described how they believed trainees viewed resiliency trainers based on gender factors, rather than exploring the perspectives and experiences of the trainees themselves. From our study, we can only understand the gender stereotypes the trainers experience or perceive. Future research should explore these trainee perspectives to get a clearer picture of how they believe gender impacts resiliency training for firefighters, correctional officers, and other PSP. Despite these limitations, the findings reveal important insights about the operation of gender stereotypes within resiliency peer training for PSP occupations [75]. Our findings have implications for addressing the marginalization of women with resiliency training and the reliance on gender stereotypes in PSP occupations, as well as gendered factors shaping mental health stigma. These factors should be considered and explored further in future PSP resiliency training research.

5. Conclusions

The current study of peer resilience training for PSP found that trainers were valued for being credible, trusted, confident, knowledgeable in mental health, and able to share stories based on personal experience. Although on the surface these characteristics may appear gender-neutral, our analysis suggests that their manifestation and operation in this context are gendered. Men trainers gained credibility when the course involved physical tasks, or when their presence supported men trainees to become more comfortable with mental health content. Women resiliency trainers were trusted due to stereotypical notions of nurturance. Because firefighters and correctional officers saw mental health as a feminine topic, women were viewed as more “believable” when teaching this content. This feminization of mental health topics can be problematic. First, in highly masculinized occupations like corrections and firefighting where “acting tough” is valued, women may be reluctant to engage with mental health issues for fear of reinforcing their own marginalization. The feminization of mental health may simultaneously reinforce men’s existing reluctance to participate due to constructions of masculinity.
Our findings show both women and men can be respected as resiliency trainers, but for different (and gendered) reasons. Men, particularly those perceived as highly masculine, demonstrate to trainees that mental health issues can affect anyone. Respect for women trainers was connected to perceptions of their maternal “nature”. While such stereotypical notions may increase respect for mental health training and decrease stigma, they may further entrench the very gendered stereotypes that shape these occupational cultures [10]. While mental health training may provide a niche for women’s leadership in otherwise men-documented occupations, this risks creating occupational pigeonholes in which women are seen as more suited for emotional labour tasks. Our findings suggest resiliency training should not become the domain of either women or men trainers, and that including both men and women trainers is important. Future research should examine gender issues in PSP resiliency training from the perspective of trainees.

Supplementary Materials

The following supporting information can be downloaded at: https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/occuphealth1010010/s1, Document S1: Gender Sub-Study–Mental Health Resiliency Training Group Dynamics: Interview Guide.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization, J.C.M.; methodology, J.C.M., A.J.F.; formal analysis, S.C.K.; investigation, A.J.F.; writing—original draft preparation, S.C.K., A.J.F.; writing—review and editing, S.C.K., A.J.F., J.C.M., A.B., R.R., R.C.B.; visualization, S.C.K.; project administration, J.C.M.; funding acquisition, J.C.M. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Funding

This research was funded by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, grant numbers FRN: 162539 and 165070. J.C.M. is supported by a Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Musculoskeletal Health Outcomes and Knowledge Translation and the Dr. James Roth Research Chair in Musculoskeletal Measurement and Knowledge Translation.

Institutional Review Board Statement

The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, and approved by the Institutional Review Board of Hamilton Integrated Research Ethics Board (project #4390, 9 January 2020).

Informed Consent Statement

Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.

Data Availability Statement

The data presented in this study are available on request from the corresponding author due to privacy concerns.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Margaret Lomotan for project coordination, and FIREWELL, a Canadian research group of firefighters and researchers, for providing logistical support for this project.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to publish the results.

Abbreviations

The following abbreviations are used in this manuscript:
PSPPublic safety personnel
R2MRRoad to Mental Readiness

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Figure 1. The connection between the three themes and associated categories resulting from the reflexive thematic analysis, based on the perceptions of resiliency peer trainers. It is important to note that mental health stigmas influence the credibility of women public safety personnel (PSP) as resiliency peer trainers based on stereotypically feminine characteristics, and leads to resiliency trainer being seen as a “niche” role for women in PSP occupations. This may reinforce the stigmatized views of mental health as a feminine topic.
Figure 1. The connection between the three themes and associated categories resulting from the reflexive thematic analysis, based on the perceptions of resiliency peer trainers. It is important to note that mental health stigmas influence the credibility of women public safety personnel (PSP) as resiliency peer trainers based on stereotypically feminine characteristics, and leads to resiliency trainer being seen as a “niche” role for women in PSP occupations. This may reinforce the stigmatized views of mental health as a feminine topic.
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Table 1. A summary of the themes, relevant categories and example quotes based on the findings from the reflexive thematic analysis and the experiences of resiliency peer trainers.
Table 1. A summary of the themes, relevant categories and example quotes based on the findings from the reflexive thematic analysis and the experiences of resiliency peer trainers.
ThemeRelevant CategoriesExample Quotes *
Mental health is seen as feminine in firefighting and correctional servicesMental health stigma
Mental health is seen as a “soft” topic
Macho mentality in men-dominated public safety occupations		“They recognize that there’s a certain emotional connection that–or a certain connection to emotions and understanding of mental health… they look at women differently for that versus a very masculine topic, right, and Resilient Minds is not a masculine topic.” (Woman trainer)
Gendered beliefs influence perceptions of trainers’ credibility and teaching skillsTrainer credibility is based on mental health knowledge or experiences, and teaching skills
Trainer credibility is influenced by gender or gender stereotypes
A man and a women should perform the resiliency training together for best trainee engagement		“To have someone, a male counterpart opening up and sharing examples and being comfortable I think is more of a positive thing more than anything because the typical stereotype is the females are usually the ones that are sharing their experiences.” (Woman trainer)
“We’re allowed to be touchy-feely. We’re allowed to care about–we’re allowed to be emotional, right? It’s literally because in my department I can tell you there is nobody else picking [the resiliency trainer role] up… At the time, it was a great place for me to go and focus my attention because I sure as heck wasn’t going to be picking up the jaws, right, and cutting a car open. So ‘yeah, you go do that’. And ‘yeah, yeah, we’ll let you’…‘It’s a good girl thing’.” (Woman trainer)
A gender stereotyping paradox exists in these men-dominated occupationsResiliency peer training as a “niche” role for women in public safety occupations
Certain public safety personnel roles or tasks require stereotypically feminine characteristics
Certain public safety personnel roles or tasks prefer masculine traits		“I delivered an open training at the provincial fire school and put a call out to all the departments across the province, and I had a large number of women. So, what I personally see is that this is a niche for female firefighters.” (Woman trainer)
“The idea that we can actually use those characteristics that have often been kind of used against women and actually show that they can be really important and really, really useful even in really masculine contexts.” (Woman trainer)
“I joined in 2011, myself and another female were the first females to ever really been on that department and like that’s not that long ago. And we would hear things when we went to fire school like ‘well, I thought they don’t take women’. So, there is very much a culture in my department of male exclusivity and the opportunities within the fire service in that department for me were definitely limited because I was female.” (Woman trainer)
* Note: Throughout this paper, we use the language of gender (e.g., women/men) rather than sex (e.g., female/male). At times, participants’ quotations reflect a conflation of gender and sex terminology. We have opted to leave their words unchanged, but reiterate our analytical focus on gender throughout this paper.
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MacDermid, J.C.; Fletcher, A.J.; Killip, S.C.; Brazil, A.; Ricciardelli, R.; Campbell Bromhead, R. Who Is the “Ideal” Peer Support Trainer? Peer Trainers’ Perceptions of Gender Dynamics in Resiliency Training for Firefighters and Correctional Officers. Occup. Health 2026, 1, 10. https://doi.org/10.3390/occuphealth1010010

AMA Style

MacDermid JC, Fletcher AJ, Killip SC, Brazil A, Ricciardelli R, Campbell Bromhead R. Who Is the “Ideal” Peer Support Trainer? Peer Trainers’ Perceptions of Gender Dynamics in Resiliency Training for Firefighters and Correctional Officers. Occupational Health. 2026; 1(1):10. https://doi.org/10.3390/occuphealth1010010

Chicago/Turabian Style

MacDermid, Joy C., Amber J. Fletcher, Shannon C. Killip, Amanda Brazil, Rosemary Ricciardelli, and Robin Campbell Bromhead. 2026. "Who Is the “Ideal” Peer Support Trainer? Peer Trainers’ Perceptions of Gender Dynamics in Resiliency Training for Firefighters and Correctional Officers" Occupational Health 1, no. 1: 10. https://doi.org/10.3390/occuphealth1010010

APA Style

MacDermid, J. C., Fletcher, A. J., Killip, S. C., Brazil, A., Ricciardelli, R., & Campbell Bromhead, R. (2026). Who Is the “Ideal” Peer Support Trainer? Peer Trainers’ Perceptions of Gender Dynamics in Resiliency Training for Firefighters and Correctional Officers. Occupational Health, 1(1), 10. https://doi.org/10.3390/occuphealth1010010

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