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From: anita@drux3.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Women and the SFFD
Message-ID: <1141@drux3.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 26-Apr-84 10:35:05 EST
Article-I.D.: drux3.1141
Posted: Thu Apr 26 10:35:05 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 27-Apr-84 04:32:17 EST
Organization: AT&T Information Systems Laboratories, Denver
Lines: 22

--

I saw the PBS program about the women trying out for the San Francisco
Fire Dept.  I must say that I think the SFFD went above and beyond the
call of duty to make sure that some women got into the department.  This
was, of course, after the threat of a suit.  What the city ended up 
doing was to set up a special training program for women wishing to try
out.  This was not done for men trying out.  Also, people are chosen
for the department based on their overall test scores (written and
physical).  Thus, someone who barely passed would be at the bottom
of the list, and would probably not ever get hired because not
that many new-hires would be needed before the next test was given.
What they did for the women was, even though they finished too low
on the list to hope to get hired, they were all moved to the top of
the list.  I'm not sure that was the right thing to do.  I'm sure a lot 
of the working firemen would have hated the idea even if the women had
placed high on their own, but I can certainly understand their ire at seeing
them undeservedly moved up.  I would love to see women in those kinds of
jobs as a means of giving young girls the role models they need to encourage
them to strive for them, but I wish that this could be accomplished
some other way.