"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.