Trades Hall

Deirdre Mahoney on Women in Uniform

When 90 women were first allowed to take the test to become New York City firefighters in 1977, and none of them passed, Brenda Berkman knew something was wrong.

	Special Projects Officer: Deirdre Mahoney

Berkman, a law graduate and one of the candidates, took the Department on in a federal sex discrimination lawsuit that challenged the test and, five years later, saw the test change and women accepted into the service.

But the problem wasn't all with the Department. This week in Sydney, Berkman told a group of unionists that after the Dept realised they were fighting a lost cause with pointless tests like carrying 150-pound sandbags up stairs ("I don't know what you think, but in my experience firefighters never run up stairs - up is where the bad stuff is!" she said), the union took up the case against the women.

While New York firefighters proudly refer to themselves as "the bravest", and are looked up to by the community, Berkman said things are different within. One of the most insular fire services, unlike its more diverse counterparts in cities like San Diego which embraced women, people from non-English speaking backgrounds and African-Americans, New York's service was run by only two groups - Irish-Americans or Italian-Americans.

Before the sex discrimination case, the entry test was either pass or fail. When women applied, the test suddenly became ranked. Berkman and others also questioned the application of other tests - things like a standing broadjump ("which I've never used in 18 years as a firefighter"). The tests were not job-related, and once passed, didn't have to be maintained annually. And yet they were standards. Berkman told of the fire service asking West Point Military Academy, which had already gone through entry tests for women, for advice, then ignoring it. Or strange reviews like the running test which was changed when one man said, "My daughter could run that distance in that time".

Helped by a Wall Street firm, who took the case on pro bono, Berkman won, but it had terrible effects on those around her. Her father-in-law, who had worked as a lawyer for the service for 30 years, lost his job. The judge in the case, who was initially unsympathetic but became "educated" throughout to the extent that he later asked to attend the first promotion of a woman firefighter, had his courts picketed by male firefighters, his sons threatened and family followed. And, when the women finally joined the service, they were ostracised and endangered - common incidents included carbon monoxide poisoning and faulty equipment.

In another case, a woman firefighter was attempting to scrape an insulting article off the staffroom wall, when a drunken male colleague lurched for the knife and cut her hand. When the Department laid him off work for a year, the union took him on. As Berkman said, although there is greater acceptance for women in her union, "We haven't hit the glass ceiling yet, because we haven't got off the dirt floor!"

Berkman further angered male firefighters by forming a women's group, similar to the Labor Council women's committee to offer support. At first, Berkman said, male firefighters' reaction was "pah - what can 38 women do, when there are 12,000 of us". But when the women's group become a national one, the reaction changed, with male firefighters fearing the women would become an alternative bargaining force, as African-Americans had formed. While this was never the intention, it increased the difficulties.

So the women were split, spread out to a ratio of one women per battalion (six fire stations), the union thus isolating them deliberately. Despite that, "These organisations really saved my career, and my life. They're not all as bad as New York City. I realised if I could help others to not repeat my experiences, that would be worth something." Meanwhile, the national [male] union continues to ignore the women firefighters, leaving them off the new standards committee despite their representations to be included.

Berkman told the meeting perceptions were widespread in society as well, with parents bringing their children to fire stations and only encouraging their sons to climb the rigs, while the daughters stood by (possibly playing with their Firefighter Barbies!). She and fellow officers often put on Ron Howard's movie Backdraft for a laugh. Although at the time the film was made there were 50 women firefighters in Chicago, the woman's role in the film was not a firefighter, but someone who "got into bed for a sex scene with one of the main protagonists". She said the education system had also been at fault in her day, with girls allowed to do only home economics, while the boys were allowed to study woodwork and so on.

Berkman, in Australia for the Women in Uniform conference in Canberra, stressed that the issue was just as problematic for women in all areas of non-traditional employment, and all over the world. Although there are still fewer than 1% women in the fire service, it is no better in the police or military, because of strong stereotypes that letting women on the job meant lowering standards. She urged the Sydney union delegates to work internationally.

"The aim isn't to get 10 women in the fire department, or 100 African-American men in the police department. It's about letting all people go where their abilities lie," Berkman said.

While she said she was very impressed with efforts in NSW to look at standards, training and gender-neutrality, requirements like a trades certificate before being eligibly for the service were a "double hurdle". And she added that the biggest indicator for female success was a strong, capable middle-manager. While those people often got harassed themselves, if they stood their ground others would follow.

Deirdre Mahoney is the Labor Council's Special Projects Officer

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  Issue 14 contents

»	Call For IR Crisis Talks as Country Conference Looms
»	Workers Sacked for Body Hire
»	British Union Secures Free Net Access
»	Cab Charge Wars: SBS Workers Fight for Their Lives
»	State Wage Case Smooth - Except for Brack
»	FOI Loopholes Could Leave Public Servants Exposed
»	Drug Summit Misses Tokin� Gesture
»	Public Will Lose Again From Rail Sackings
»	Robin Hood Strikes Again
»	CPSU shows it cares�
»	Unions Take Action on Timor, Stolen Generation

»	Guest Report
»	Sport
»	Trades Hall
»	Piers Watch

»	Faction Calls Miss Point
»	Don't Ignore the Class Divide
»	Timor: Look at the Map!
»	Songs of the Revolution Feedback

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