Introduction

Women have faced much scrutiny being involved with fire departments and other emergency services for decades. It has been said that women are not able to perform the same duties as males and they just are not cut out for these services. These opinions are wrong. Also women face tough times when trying to get promoted through the fire department as this has been a male dominated field of work for quite some time.
Trying to get and to a fire department, regardless of sex, is a difficult thing. On top of that, being a woman has set another obstacle in the hiring process. An article published by Cornell's Institute for Women and Work stated that less than 4 percent of the nation's fire fighters are female and that over half of the nation's fire departments have never even hired a female worker. This is an alarming statistic. Even harder then trying to be hired on a fire department as a woman, is trying to be hired as a woman of color.
This issue has importance to me because I personally come from a family of fire fighters and it is an issue that I would like to see get the attention that it deserves. With all of the human rights and equality that we strive for as Americans, this is an issue that needs attention and can hopefully see change. I am a firm believer in women rights especially in this field because women are qualified and it would bring change that has been long needed for this profession.