I am a female firefighter. I can assure you, I would be happy about no ones death, regardless of what it would do for women in my position.
The problem is that all women who want to do this job have to fight twice as hard as a man to actually make it a career, because women just plain aren’t expected to take that path.
I assure you, I was stronger, more agile, and in better shape than many of the men on my fire department. I was also weaker than some, but truth be told, I was in the middle of the pack overall.
Still, throughout my training I and the only other woman in my class were overlooked to do practical tasks... and we had one of the more open-minded instructors around!
Following my training, I felt less prepared because I was overlooked. Still, I didn’t complain, I just spent my own time working on the areas that I felt I needed to work on. Eventually I made it to the point where I felt like I knew at the very least what was expected of me and what I would need, if not a little more.
Still, going on calls, I got overlooked to do jobs that I’d easily be capable of.
For some people, this is discouraging enough to leave the professional altogether. Not to put a different viewpoint out there, after all I can tell you guys are having a great time flaming the feminist... but I think what the article was getting at is the fact that the lengths to which women have to go in order to begin to have a shot in this profession (and not even a fair one, at that) are ridiculous. Therefore, despite the fact that many of us are physically, mentally, and emotionally capable of handling the job, only a small percentage of us manage to succeed in it, not because we can’t do it, but because the “brothers” don’t want us to.
Ask any female firefighter that has been pushed around, ignored, overlooked, and treated like s*** just because she wanted to do a job that wasn’t within the social norm for her to do.
Being a firefighter isn’t a choice. It is something many of us were called to do. To deny us the chance because of a lack of testosterone is bull.