Should the test standard to become a firefighter be lower for a women then for a man?
The women in our fire department passed the same test that the men did. Firefighting can be absolutely grueling. Wearing the turnout gear itself (without a fire anywhere near) can cause a heat injury. Heat stroke, dehydration, etc… It has to be a very good insulator to keep you from cooking in the 1000 degree air. This insulation keeps you very hot. The conditions are extremely miserable – sometimes beyond description. Incidentally, stamina isn’t a huge part of the test. Safety dictates that firefighters be rotated in and out of the hottest spots at pretty short intervals. Next time you drive by a fire, you will probably notice about 7 or 8 people standing around doing nothing. Those 7 or 8 either just rotated out of the fire, or are getting ready to rotate in. Having said all of this, the test is nowhere near as demanding as the fire is. I recommend nobody gets cut any slack.
There should be uniform standards for both men and women. If I am required to do 50 pushups or 10 pullups a female should have to do the same. This would disqualify a lot of women but every now and then you would have a woman who would mee these requirements and you would now that she earned her spot and it was not given to her. Why should a woman be hired for the same job getting the same pay and benefits but be able to perform at lower standards than her male counterpart. Sure a lot of feminist would cry foul, but it confuses me on how they THINK women can do anything a man can do, yet want it made easier for them because they are a female. I am an inner city black male arguably one of the most discriminated against groups in this country, yet should i be given preference or easier standards than a suburban white male who is better qualified or able to meet higher standards (in any job)?You be the judge. Women should be allowed to apply and IF they can meet the SAME standards then i
No, firefighting is a profession that requires a certain amount of physical strength and stamina. Anyone who wants to do the job should have the necessary physical skills. BUT (this is a very big BUT), the test should NOT be designed with excessive physical demands that have little relation to the actual on-the-job demands. While I am no expert, I suspect that physical testing for firefighters MAY have been ‘cranked up’ in the past with the partial goal of excluding women. This has been an issue for many male-dominated professions in the past. For example, very few women became finish carpenters because the traditional work task of an apprentice carpenter was to fetch large quantities of wood for their mentors. Women, on average, lack the upper-body strength to excel at this. However, once women were allowed to learn finish carpentry without the ‘pack mule’ requirement, it turned out they can excel at the job. Very few traditionally ‘male’ jobs require large amounts of upper-body stren
