Essay on What It Takes to Become a Firefighter

Also on the job duties task list there are many hazardous situations firefighters are involved and faced with. Another source states, “Firefighters also may come in contact with poisonous, flammable, or explosive gases and chemicals that may have immediate or long-term effects to health.”(www.allthingspolitical.org online). Another way to explain this is firefighters have to look out for the dangers that may cause them to die on duty. According to another website, “Firefighting involves hazardous conditions and long irregular hours.”(www.bls.org online). Obviously, this career is dangerous and has longer hours than usual jobs. As one website says, “Fire stations usually have features in common with a residential facility like a dormitory.”(www.allthingspolitcal.org online). In other words, fire stations serve as a secondary home for the firefighters. Experts say, “When an alarm sounds, fire fighters respond rapidly, regardless of the weather of hour.”(www.allthingspolitcal.org online). In other words, no matter the weather or time of day fire fighters are required to respond to the event as soon as possible. Another source states, “Firefighting involves the risk of death or injury

Firefighting has specific duties such as put out fires with specialized hoses and treat sick people and get them out of houses with burning buildings. It requires a lot of commitment and you will be forced to carry a person outside of a burning building and you must not be claustrophobic because you will be in a burning building with thick smoke trying to find somebody and you will get cramped by the smoke and debris. In this career this person need to be allowed to perform in the career with excellence and they need to be able to withstand heat and they need to be able to have the strength to be able to carry out a person in a burning building or any

Firefighters do more than just put out fire. It is not just a one sided job. There is a medical side of the firefighter job. They have house calls constantly for people requiring medical attention. It is quite a bit more than just fire. The calls that they go on are mostly medical rather than structure fires. They also go to

Hegemonic masculinity is a thing that influences many people’s perceptions and thoughts about understanding the social hierarchy within the firefighter profession, and it is happening constantly. According to Macleod (2016), the high form of manliness instills normative standards by which gender differences are assessed. Therefore, the genders break down of social separation and labor of jobs is defined through the populations and the general public’s viewpoint. Every worker plays an important and dominant role in the environment of females who are looking to join the profession of becoming a firefighter over time. The training in the academy requires for many masculine characteristic and because of this it discourages many females and can prohibit them from joining this male dominated

The City of Lakewood is receiving complaints from individuals that have endured their fire fighter recruitment assessment; a rigorous training procedure. Complaints indicate that the federally approved and city adopted method of training fire fighters is “unfairly” administered and potentially bias in its development. Complaints are gender in nature and includes the scrutiny of firefighter safety, individual physical strength requirements, and essential cognitive functioning’s. Although the City of Lakewood’s firefighter testing requirements are stringent, it is vital to the safety of individuals and communities in all jurisdictions.

The biggest concern is that the community wont take policewomen as seriously as policemen and “the current idea of masculinity in police work will be jeopardized. Over the years, police work has encompassed a masculine status, and women generally face difficulty gaining respect and credibility”(Kakar, 2002). “Women implement “soft policing” which emphasizes problem solving over the crime-fighting attitudes favored by male officers”(McCarthy, 2013). “Women made fewer arrests and gave fewer traffic violations (“Police Women on Patrol”). However, differences in arrests did not affect women’s performance ratings. The same level of respect and favorable attitudes were seen from citizens involved in police incidents with patrol officers of both sexes (“Police Women on Patrol”) “Women do indeed implement a different style of policing than the direct crime-fighting style seen by men, but it does not sacrifice respect or degrade the values of policing”(Innes,

The Indianapolis Police Department was the first department to appoint female officers to regular patrol duty in 1968. High escalation of women assigned to patrols was the result of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act between 1968 and 1974 and court orders dictating the number of policewomen to be hired. Many of the policewomen assigned to patrol duties did not receive any calls from radio dispatchers; thus, they were often given administrative tasks. The Washington D.C. Police Department was the first department in the country to give female officers the same patrol accountabilities as their male officers. The admission requirements for male and female officers differed only in weight for women. Patrols’ evaluation revealed that policewomen work was equally effective as policemen. The evaluation’s results had an enormous impact on the hiring police women in the United States. Although there has been some noticeable improvement

The fire service is a institution intertwined with tradition and bravery. The men and women in this line of work are worth of praise and a raise but is it all for the right reasons? Does the community want a firefighter willing to kill him or herself for their empty buildings or a fireman willing to work with the community to prevent the fire from ever taking place? The ideal hero in American society is often one that flirts with death day in and day out but that is not a safe mentality to demand. The firemen themselves can often get caught up in the moment and decide that lights and sirens mixed with daring rescues and jumping out of flaming windows is going to be their lifestyle.

For years Women in Law enforcement was unheard of. They were said to be unfit, not strong enough, they didn’t have the mental fortitude, or the toughness, but as we can see today as of recent occurrences of women bursting onto the Law enforcement scene the tide is shifting and women are proving the stereotypes wrong. Previously women were only used for a couple of jobs, clerk type work, or dealing with victims of sexual offense cases. They were believed to have a better more innate ability for dealing with these types of cases and their victims, but also, because women are more likely to talk to women after being raped by a man. Although attitudes are changing about female police officers till this day there is a

More often these days, you hear of females participating in roles that previously were male oriented. Do you believe that life would be different in the fire station if there was a female on the squad or engine companies? Do you think that it would be more difficult to build a relationship with a female firefighter than with a male firefighter (or vice versa if interviewing a female firefighter)? Why?

Women faced many more challenges prior to even starting the job. Most skilled labor positions require specific training and testing prior to starting on the job. In 1977 the New York Fire Department for the first time allowed women to test for firefighter positions. Brenda Berkman, then an attorney, was one of five hundred women who passed the written test. Then the New York Fire Department changed its scoring system for the physical test from pass-fail to a rank-ordered test. One personnel department official openly described it as the toughest test the department had ever given. Berkman was one of 90 women who took and failed the

The fire department I currently work for is extremely firm when it comes to Harassment in the Workplace. In the last few years, we have a seen an increase of female that wanted to joined the fire service. One was successful back in two thousand two where she was the first female firefighter in the history of the Bathurst Fire Department to make it as a career. Unfortunately, it came with a certain sense of insecurity among the male firefighters. Some firefighters spouse were even more concerned having a female staff in the house. At the time, both stations were not ready to accommodate a woman in the workplace, like bathroom or dormitory. Today, we do not have career female but we do have two women’s in the volunteer force. Every male

Being a woman on the fire department can be a dangerous and trying task. I am constantly picked on for the sole face that I am not a male like all my other brothers on the department. The rewarding feeling of being able to save a life makes all the teasing and joking completely worth it for me. I had no idea how anything on the fire department worked, before becoming involved. This is something I have working hard on changing over the past few months, with the end goal of becoming literate in the ways of the firefighter.

I think you are right: the 18 year old seemed more excited about being a firefighter because she has not gone through the experiences the other two women have. It would be safe to assume the two older women in the film were as excited as she is when they were first training to become fire fighters. However I do believe in some jobs, women are trying and fighting to a certain degree, successfully to overcome their obstacles. For example, we hear more and more women holding executive positions on different companies, when it was mainly dominated by male. However that does not mean this particular women had the same advantages, or her road to that position has been the same as her male counterpart holding a similar position, even

I am a female, and undeniably not 21 anymore. Truly, might I be capable of becoming one of the 3% of female firefighters nationally? Could I do