This battle was fought from trench to trench back in the 1980s and 1990s. Physical performance and upper-body strength standards were changed in fire departments all over the country, including FDNY, in order to enable more women to pass the entrance physical.
Do we know how many people croaked in fires due to womyn in the ranks?
BTTT.
Here in NJ this whole discussion is really about wealth re-distribution and gubmint jobs; the paid fire departments are holdovers from our manufacturing days (when big corporations paid for much of the services), and now most firemen sleep all day in firehouses at the taxpayers’ expense. They’ve resisted regionalization and combining with EMTs because their unions are strong, while there are simply not enough fires to justify them (that is why often the firebugs are volunteers trying to get on or create paid departments). Not only have they lowered the bar for affirmative action applicants, but in my town they were forced to open the process to residents of neighboring Newark NJ - while Newark is allowed to keep its residents-only policy. This is just about maintaining the myth of a minority middle class, nothing more; the work itself isn’t even factored into the equation, just the economic outcome.