Firefighters; Should they be all males, or can we have some females?

[Coral]

I was driving home from work with my dad and he was listening to talk radio and they were discussing a case in the UK where the government was planning to mandate that 15% of the fire fighters be female. I think the number was at 5% and they wanted it to reach 15% in 5 years. One of the callers a Toronto fire fighter was against this and made many claims about trust, and when lives are at stake political correctness should be put aside. Comments about genetics and girls being naturally attracted to specific toys, women being better nurses were also mentioned.

What do you guys think? Can a woman be a good firefighter? Will mandating this exclude men that are better qualified? Who would you trust with your life?

[Lucas]

Not intended as a knock against firefighters (America's heroes), but I'd trust my life more to a woman than a man any day. Sexism needs to die already.

[Smokey]

Actually, it makes sense to have a male firefighter as opposed to a female one. It's a physically demanding job, and generally women are physically weaker than men.

I just think that mandating anything is completely ridiculous. I mean, you don't have anything better to do than to dick around with this? C'mon, you limeys, get your priorities straight.

[Joey D]

If a person can carry someone out of a fire, they can be a firefighter. Sex doesn't matter.

Pass the training, the tests and exercise rigorously, you can save me from a fire any day... don't care if you're male OR female.

[blue rogue]

Yeah, I agree with Smokey and Joey D on this. First off, mandating anything of this sort is ridiculous. I would say sex wouldn't matter as well, as long as the standards for training were still high. The number one priority of a firefighter is to save people and it doesn't matter if you're a woman or a man as long as you can get the job done.

[chipotleattack]

Not intended as a knock against firefighters (America's heroes), but I'd trust my life more to a woman than a man any day. Sexism needs to die already.

And why would you do that?

I don't see any good reason why you'd trust a woman over a man.

I'm with everyone else here. If a woman is strong enough, fit enough and brave enough to do what male firefighters do, then that's fine. Mandating 15% is BS. I don't want any pansy anorexic women trying to pick me up and carry me out of a burning building.

And while we're on this topic, I hate feminists with a passion. They don't want equality. They want to be better than men. So **** them. I'm all for equality, but they don't want that.

[Rensa]

They're not all male over here, as far as I know; our vulnerability to bushfires during the summer means that volunteer firefighting is a pretty admirable thing to do for either gender. Although I'd imagine there's still probably a strong male bias in the numbers.

Don't think I really need to comment on the mandating, though, since it's old ground :)

[Tanooki]

Mandating stuff like that is just another form of that affirmative action like crap that just needs to die. I could care less if a woman wants to do it or not, if she has the strength and stamina to do it, and she can pass the test, she's in far as I care. No one should be forcing a quota system in general, especially in a field like this were someone could end up too weak for the job but gets forced in due to lame rules and potential lawsuits that back em up.

[prime_timer]

Toss me into the popular opinion column. If a woman is good enough to get through all that demanding ****, throw her onto Optimus Prime to drag my monkey ass out of a burning ****ing building.

[Lizzaroni]

Mandates are retarded. As usual it abandons the concept of merit entirely. My solution: keep it open to anyone but have uniform standards. You meet the standards, you're in.

Vote Liz.

[Joey D]

And while we're on this topic, I hate feminists with a passion. They don't want equality. They want to be better than men. So **** them. I'm all for equality, but they don't want that.

That's a pretty skewed, narrow and incorrect view of the term "feminist." A feminist is one that holds a feminist line of thought. I am a male, I am a feminist. A feminist does NOT have to be a female.

Feminism IS about equality. It is not the superiority of the female gender over the male gender. It is the equality of the two.

You may be thinking of the stereotypical, movie-type feminists in a green tank top, big ass boots and hairy arm pits. These are not feminists... these are extreme, satirical examples. They exist, sure, but they are not typical feminists.

Wiki? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminism

[Lizzaroni]

The thing about feminism is no one is a card-carrying feminist - there really is no such thing. You have so many different people and organizations claiming to be feminists. I mean, ****, you've got Feminists for Life (actual organization) and other groups that claim feminism is pro-choice. What it really boils down is saying "I hate feminists" or "feminists only want this" is probably wrong 9/10. It's just such a large umbrella that any yahoo can claim to be under for any reason so long as they profess that their position is pro-woman.

[Joey D]

The thing about feminism is no one is a card-carrying feminist - there really is no such thing. You have so many different people and organizations claiming to be feminists. I mean, ****, you've got Feminists for Life (actual organization) and other groups that claim feminism is pro-choice. What it really boils down is saying "I hate feminists" or "feminists only want this" is probably wrong 9/10. It's just such a large umbrella that any yahoo can claim to be under for any reason so long as they profess that their position is pro-woman.

YES!

What gets me about feminism is that in some circles it's almost immoral to NOT say you're a feminist. Women's Studies class is my perfect example. There was a girl in my class that actually claimed that females are the lesser sex and that she thought feminism was ridiculous. Man, the looks she got.

Question, then... should a women be ostracized if she is NOT a feminist?

[Kim Fidler]

As long as a female can drag my sorry unconscious ass out of burning building, I'm cool with it.

[MR EPIC]

If a person can carry someone out of a fire, they can be a firefighter. Sex doesn't matter.

Pass the training, the tests and exercise rigorously, you can save me from a fire any day... don't care if you're male OR female.

This is exactly how I feel about it. We have female doctors who make decisions about people's lives every day, so I don't see how a female firefighter's instincts or thought process would be any different.

[Darc Requiem]

If a person can carry someone out of a fire, they can be a firefighter. Sex doesn't matter.

Pass the training, the tests and exercise rigorously, you can save me from a fire any day... don't care if you're male OR female.

Great post Joey D. As long as you can do the job, it should not matter whether you are a man or woman.

[HGW XX/7]

If a person can carry someone out of a fire, they can be a firefighter. Sex doesn't matter.

Pass the training, the tests and exercise rigorously, you can save me from a fire any day... don't care if you're male OR female.

How did this thread go on so long. It ended with this post.

Edit; Just saw it went to the second page, then went and read everything. Decent discussion, nevermind, but this post ended the original train of thought.