Happy International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month! Today we are celebrating the women on our staff who help us accomplish our mission of preserving and protecting open space!
Rangers are essential to protecting open space: they build and maintain trails, keep visitors safe and protect essential natural resources. Ranger service has been a historically male-dominated field, but that landscape is beginning to change. Today we are highlighting the accomplishments of Ranger Kristin Perry, one of our amazing supervising rangers.
Ranger Perry loves having an outdoor office. She began her career working as an interpretive ranger for the National Park Service. In 2011, she decided to put herself through the NPS’ Seasonal Ranger Law Enforcement Academy.
“I wanted to be where all the action was!” said Ranger Perry. “The Law Enforcement Rangers … had all of the stories to tell. [They were the ones] who were dangling out of helicopters or responding to fires.”
Though women are underrepresented in the ranger profession, Ranger Perry says that she found a lot of support breaking into the field from her instructors, coworkers and command staff. Additionally, seeing other women succeeding as rangers helped her to feel confident in her career path.
“Absolutely there are hurdles to jump and stereotypes to face in any career field that is male dominated. I was inspired at the park I worked at before joining Midpen by having a female supervisor and chief ranger. Even though I was the only female line ranger there at the time, seeing that other women had paved a path before me, women who were competent and respected, gave me a lot of confidence that this was a career I had a place in.”
Ranger Perry hopes to serve as that same inspiration for other women and girls who are hoping to become rangers: “That’s why being promoted to a supervisor role here at Midpen was a great achievement for me, since I know how important it is for other women who join this profession to see that they can have a future in this field.”