Fire- an eyewitness account of one female firefighter in action

dermanus · 2011-10-03T01:45:08+00:00

I would say it is a men's rights issue. Changing job qualifications based on gender is pretty blatant discrimination.

Sarstan · 2011-10-03T10:28:46+00:00

There's only one logical conclusion to all of this: The demands of some professions are sexist! Fires shouldn't cause a person to need to lift a lot of weight or make you have to carry around cumbersome equipment! Even the jobs for police are sexist. Criminals really need to be a lot weaker and quit putting up a struggle when arrested.

snoopyzanus · 2011-10-03T15:31:37+00:00

I would like to address the topic of women as firefighters in general.

Here's an article where some women are complaining about a physical test being too hard for women to pass and calling for a test easier for them, less based on strength and more on firefighting skills.

They completely miss the point. Not having the prerequisite physical strength and stamina means that you won't be able to put many vital firefighting skills into practice, such as manhandling heavy equipment quickly and efficiently, not to mention physically carrying people to safety.

There are lives at stake here. You want those who have ALL of the necessary skills and abilities at the highest level possible. If gender weren't a factor, you would want to hire the cream of the crop to fill positions--not average candidates, and certainly not those who barely passed tests of qualities vital to the job, when there are plenty of better-qualified people above them in the candidate pool.

In tests for jobs like this, the standards should be as high as possible so that the large pool of candidates is reduced to the best of those actually able to do the job.

The difference in physical ability between men and women is vast, and some are trying to pretend it isn't even at a very real risk to people's lives.

"In terms of physical capability, the upper five percent of women are at the level of the male median. The average 20-to-30 year-old woman has the same aerobic capacity as a 50 year-old man."

From the same article: "Using the standard Army Physical Fitness Test, he found that the upper quintile of women at West point achieved scores on the test equivalent to the bottom quintile of men."

The above research was done on women in the military, but the same kind of results hold true for women doing physical tests for firefighting.

If an average man just passing the test wouldn't be hired, neither should a woman who barely passed the test, even though she is at the top of the few women who could pass it at all. There is certainly no justification for calling for standards to be lowered or for a blind eye to be turned to inadequacy based on a candidate's gender.

Demonspawn · 2011-10-03T13:49:14+00:00

This just raises one question for me that I think people should answer:

How many lives is "equality" worth?

Leprecon · 2011-10-03T14:37:38+00:00

Relevant article (about Swedish firefighters)

source from actual news, not just another blog.

zellyman · 2011-10-03T01:42:14+00:00

Like there hasn't ever been an incompetent man firefighter either.

Fire her, find someone else to do the job, and move on.

Not a men's rights issue.

banksnld · 2011-10-03T02:47:29+00:00

From the way the article describes it, it sounds like on one hand there was a group of experienced male fireman working together to roll out & hook up a hose to a fire hydrant, and on the other you had an untrained "probie" that was left to her own devices. This strikes me more as a problem of the veteran firefighters letting someone twist. Rather hard to take her failure seriously when it pretty much sounds like they were setting her up to fail.

royboh · 2011-10-03T03:15:45+00:00

This woman was ‘a probie’ and this was her first time out of ‘the house’ which was right down the block from me.

Oh come on, she's new.

Plus, there are more positions that don't involve directly fighting fires and emergency rescue if you're employed by the local fire department.

millertime73 · 2011-10-03T14:38:43+00:00

Liberals are perfectly happy for your kids to get burned alive, as long as some 100 lb woman can feel better about herself and ride on a fire truck.

Drogo-Targaryen-2012 · 2011-10-03T02:12:19+00:00

I think this depends on the women in question. There are plenty of small, 120 pound women who compete in powerlifting and olympic weightlifting who have a much higher combined total than the majority of men on this subreddit weighing over 200 pounds. Look at the top competitors in the crossfit games. One of the smaller ones I saw was Camille Leblanc who weighs 125 @ 5'3" and I doubt she'd have any problem moving gear around.

2011-10-03T01:39:09+00:00

I really hope this isn't true.

Title	Fire- an eyewitness account of one female firefighter in action
Author	avoiceformen
Upvotes	22
Comments	31
Date	October 3, 2011 12:14 AM UTC (14 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/kytio/fire_an_eyewitness_account_of_one_female/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/fire-an-eyewitness-account-of-one-female.1033751 https://theredarchive.com/post/1033751

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