Important Video

I chose this video because I feel it is very important to the ideas that I am trying to get across. Women need to be involved in emergency services and with this video it shows the positives to the profession that these individuals have chosen. The interviews are very insightful and meaningful while showing a good side to the job.
For most of my posts I have been sharing the problems that women face inside of the firefighting profession. This post I wanted to change the tone and let the viewers understand that there also is a great side to becoming a female firefighter. These interviews show women and how they have come into the job and the great experiences they have. The video itself also talks about other minorities involved in firefighting and how happy they are with the decisions they have made.
In conclusion I feel that it is important to show both the good and the evil to a given subject as not to create a bias and to give every opinion a chance. This video is what my blog needed so that women do not fear going into emergency services and see that there is good with becoming a firefighter and there are women that are very happy in their profession. Women deserve their chance in the emergency services and hopefully more will come out for these jobs.

I was not able to upload the video but the address for it is http://www.fire2020.org/WhyIChoseV.html

www.i-women.org

For this post we are asked to find a relevant website to our topic. For my website I chose www.i-women.org. This website is very relevant to the topic that I discuss. They deal with women in emergency services and touch on important topics in regards to women in the emergency services field of work.
The website covers major issues surrounding women in the fire department among other things. Some of the issues they talk about are the barriers that women face in this field. Their goal is the progress of women in these services and to see them treated like they should be; as equals. Their website is very informative and always backed with accurate percentages.
A couple of entries that this website has are the issues icon. If you click on this link you are taken to a page those talks about all of the issues that are important to women in the fire services. Talking everywhere from the dangers that women face, institutional barriers, and specific court cases that show progression for women in the workplace are all topics within the site. For example, one of the cases they showed was about a Los Angeles woman who sued the department she worked for because of harassment. She ended up winning the case and showed that women could be heard and should stand up for themselves.
All in all I support this website because it is very informative and gives me a better look at women in the fire fighting career. I get a good amount of my information from this sight and hopefully others will as well, so we can put an end to this discrimination.

"Recrutiment"

Many people within a given fire department throw the word recruitment around and don’t necessarily know all that this encompasses. They feel as if they should have more women fire fighters so that they look better to the community and keep them out of court. They believe that they should have some and should “recruit” to get them; and when they have “enough” then they can stop recruiting.
This happens many times and fire departments around the country have had to deal with these issues. They recruit for women fire fighters because they do not have any for any number of reasons and then they feel as though they have “enough” and stop looking for women fire fighters. What is “enough”? It is a shame that this term comes into the picture when talking about hiring qualified people for a job. It is a common issue that when a given fire department hits its goal of how many women they need to have hired then they will always have the bare minimum. Is that because they stop hiring women? Do they not allow anymore? Why so few women when several will apply for a position? These are all questions that have been asked but you never see an answer for these issues.
Statistics show that women make up an extremely small percentage of fire fighters in America. A large part is due to the gender positions and socialization views of women and these “male” professions. This is an issue that hopefully will be resolved but unfortunately this probably will not happen very soon. If you are qualified then you are qualified; gender should have no relevance as women in many times are just as qualified as men for these jobs.

Justice is Served in Los Angekes

Justice has been served in Los Angles. Former LAFD fire fighter Brenda Lee was awarded 6.2 million dollars in damages by a jury last month. She had been the victim of ruthless behavior that had been going on within the LAFD. She was harassed for being female, African- American, and a lesbian. Lee was subjected to many awful things in her twelve year stint with the LAFD and finally she had enough and took her case to court.
The article states that Lee faced “behaviors from supervisors and co-workers such as derogatory comments, her locker being ransacked, being singled out to do exhausting drills no other firefighters were required to do, finding her mouthwash had been mixed with urine, and being retaliated against when she complained of the treatment.” (www.i-women.org) Also two male coworkers had testified on behalf of Lee’s defense, and they too were retaliated against and eventually had law suits of their own; which both of them won their own settlements.
Hopefully, this is a sign of what is to come of the fire department. Finally, making people watch what they say and be held accountable for their actions. It amazes me that it has taken this long for this kind of action to take place, but better late then never. Lee was awarded what she deserved and this big hit to the budget will at least make this department be more aware of how employees may be treating one another. Hopefully this idea will spread to other departments around the country as the LAFD is not the only department facing these issues.

Sexual Harassment

Sexual harassment is ongoing problem with fire departments around the country. The fire fighting profession is an occupation dominated by males. Women face many hardships from the fire department and from their fellow workers. Even though the sexual harassment clearly takes place in the fire department, it is rarely ever documented for different reasons.
It is hard for women to tell anyone about harassment issues in the fire department because often times they feel scared to do so. It is unfortunate that women are forced to feel this way but understandable why women do. When women have been surveyed about the issue of sexual harassment in the fire department and asked why women rarely report incidents they have very real reasons as to why. They do not want to be labeled as “trouble-makers” and feel that if they do report these incidents that their fellow fire fighters will look down upon these women. It is a hard place to be when you are outnumbered as much as women are in the fire department. Also the women surveyed felt that if they were to report any incidents that they would probably end up losing their job. They feel this way because it is as if whenever a women takes legal action against another employee, they often do not come back to work. Often women will just not say anything so as not to be “singled” out more than they already are in this profession, and just hope that the harassment stops.
It is a horrible thing to imagine that in this day and age women are still this uncomfortable at their profession. When these issues keep happening it is not the women that are to blame or even the men; the institution is failing them. The institution is failing these women because they are not making them feel comfortable enough to speak out about problems in the job. There needs to be a change because sexual harassment should not occur in the workplace and in the fire department it seems as if it is not being taken serious enough.