Lisa-Marie Darley is breaking bias this International Women's Day

Ms Darley is duty operations manager at Broken Hill for the NSW Ambulance and admitted it has been pretty special to see a number of women take roles within the industry since starting.

"I think for me, I commenced back in 2003 with NSW Ambulance and back then there were very limited females," she said.

"Since then, I've seen ambulance become a home where we do have diversity and gender parity.

"I think it's important that women are in leadership or paramedic roles, they have definitely passionate and resourceful.

"I think we see the world through a different lens and it's really powerful to have that mix of skillset."

Ms Darley said she herself has seen the lack of gender equality in some industries during her life but it was one significant one which led her to join the NSW Ambulance.

"Initially I was an underground electrician and I worked with about 400 men for a while," she said.

"I went backpacking overseas and when I came back I wasn't offered a position because I was a female.

"I saw an application in the paper for paramedics, there was a local entry program."

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Ms Darley admitted she had always had an interest in helping people and her family's passions ended up becoming her job for the last almost 20 years.

"I always thought it was something I was interested in because I came from a long history of volunteering with St John Ambulance," she said.

"My family like my father, my sister and myself were all members so I thought that's something I think I could do to help others."

The theme for the 2022 International Women's Day is #BreakTheBias which is something Ms Darley has certainly done in her career as she now sits in a high leadership role in the NSW Ambulance for her area and the region.

As of March 2022, 47 per cent of NSW Ambulance staff are women, a number which has steadily increased especially during Ms Darley's time in the organisation.

For Ms Darley, she believes the actions of the women of today can certainly pave the way for the new generation of females in society going forward.

"For me, I'm a female leader so I think it is really important that we inspire the next generation of other women to be themselves," she said.

"It's important to show that every one of our voices matters and we can bring to paramedics our experiences as well cheer on all our peers."

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