New York - As a New York City firefighter, Sarinya Srisakul didn't work with another woman for five years, and when she did, she took pictures because it was so rare.
“We were so excited to see each other,” she said. “For me, that just doesn't happen.”
There are only 37 women out of 10 500 uniformed firefighters in New York City, about a third of 1 percent, among the lowest percentage of any department in the United States. But that number is expected to grow after a record number of women took the latest exam following heavy recruitment spurred by a court order two years ago. Six women entered the fire academy just this week.
“Out of a city of 8 million people, there cannot be only 37
women who are qualified enough and interested in being firefighters - that's just ridiculous,” said Srisakul, president of the women's firefighters association, which has made boosting numbers a priority. She is working to help women pass the rigorous physical exam and meet fire academy expectations to graduate into the job.
In the U.S., the firefighting profession remains overwhelmingly male, with women making up only 3.4 percent of the total workforce, according to federal labor statistics. Arguments for why there are so few women on the job are common: They don't want to work in a dangerous, dirty industry, and they just aren't strong enough to deal with the physical demands, which include wearing up to 125 pounds (56 kilograms) of gear or carrying unconscious victims down a darkened stairwell.
“We've tried to recruit women. The reality is for whatever reason, it doesn't seem to be an attractive job,” said Steve MacDonald, spokesman for Boston's fire department, which has 18 women out of a force of 1 470.
None of those arguments really holds up, according to Marc Bendick, an economic consultant who did a study on female firefighters nationwide. He found that men and women who take the physical fitness test known as Candidate Physical Ability Test, developed by fire chiefs around the U.S., pass at about the same rate as long as the test is administered fairly.
Bendick said other big-city fire departments have more balanced numbers, such as 16 percent in Minneapolis and nearly 5 percent in Denver. And he noted that previously male-dominated jobs, such as military combat and policing, have already made better strides. New York City's police department, for example, has more than 6 000 female officers out of about 35,000 - or about 18 percent.
Bendick's study, which researched the experiences of about 600 female and 600 male firefighters, cited as reasons for the lack of women in firefighting an unreasonably high physical standard unrelated to the job duties, a lack of recruitment and hostile behavior by male colleagues.
Srisakul, who has been a firefighter for nine years, said only 78 percent of the firehouses in New York are outfitted with facilities for women. Other female FDNY firefighters say they have been harassed, and sexist posters were regularly displayed. At least one recently filed a gender discrimination lawsuit that was settled out of court.
In Chicago, there are about 5 000 firefighters and around 120 are women - and a federal judge just awarded $2 million after ruling the department discriminated against women with a physical fitness test that was measuring brawn over the ability to do the job.
In New York, which has the largest U.S. fire department, the FDNY is under court order to hire more diverse classes, but that legal battle has focused mostly on minority men. Members of a black firefighters union sued; only about 9 percent of the firefighters are black or Hispanic, though more than half the city's residents identify with a racial minority group. A federal judge ordered a new written test and better recruitment efforts by the department to boost numbers of minorities. Of the latest class of 319 probationary firefighters that entered the academy this week, 46 percent are minorities.
To recruit more women, the FDNY launched an aggressive campaign, including attending events organized by Nontraditional Employment for Women, the U.S. military and female athletic clubs and organizations. Candidates are offered additional support through the mentoring program that pairs current female firefighters with female candidates.
New York's written test is given every four years. Depending on scores, test-takers are asked back for a physical fitness exam and finally for slots in the academy - usually about 300. The 42 161 would-be firefighters who took the most recent fire exam were the most diverse group ever- nearly 46 percent were minorities. And nearly 2 000 women took the written test - the most ever.
Sapa-AP