if only having women was 'the last bastion.'

Another bastion which needs attention is the lack of talking in the CFA culture which has had another man suiciding this week in Violet Town. The response has been nil, setting the scene for the tragedy that is suicide continue for men and their families.

Maybe the Queensland Fire Services want to resist having women in certain roles because they have observed the feminisation of other organizations such as the Victorian Police force which really has lost all respect.

Elizabeth writes
'And women are generally not so concerned about a pecking order.' If that was the case why is this article written? Why affirmative action? Why lower the physical requirements for women to do certain tasks?

The truth is that most men want to wear the pants in their house and many women are happy with that. Fire away!

I wonder how this has ever been proven.

“Women may or not behave differently in similar circumstances. But they certainly have more awareness of the problems to be addressed. And women are generally not so concerned about a pecking order. They are more likely to be concerned with the problems confronting them.”

I went to small seminar recently where there were about 50 women and about 5 men. The men sat quietly while a number of women said to the speakers that men do this and men do that (all negative of course). Finally a speaker said that they did not want to talk about gender as what the women were saying had nothing to do with the topics being presented at the seminar.

If women are going to exagerate or make up stories about themselves or about men, then why should women be in the fire services.

Women this, men that, solipsistic stereotyping sexist dribble.

Oh, the irony.

Lower the (physigal) standards. To be er, equal?

Double irony.

And, who will pick up the slack. lm assuming that variation in performance based on physical capacity will attract equal pay. Or do the strong slow down their work rate, lest they do more for the same pay, resulting in a veiled pay gap. Surely not. Or do we simply expect the strong to work harder than the weaker, each according to their, er, (gender based) capacity... in the interests of eekwalitee. Too much irony to consider.

Personally, l would find it patronisingly condascending to have standards lowered, in a physically tough job, so that l can play too?

Then again, everyone gets a 'winners' ribbon these days.

Let the charade commence.

And this reasoning will form the basis of 'more awareness of the problems to be addressed' ?

Equality is an illusion anyway. It doesnt exist. Do we continue denying reality in service of our feel good delusions?

The irony metre is off the scale, best stop here.

Elizabeth

These above posters have demonstrated the deeply-entrenched hostility that excludes women from the work force.

Around here, everyone chips in when there are major fires and
its all voluntary. The last major fire involved 60'000 acres
burning and to put it mildly, its not for the faint hearted.

As somebody has to do it, its the fellas that go out and
do the dirty work, whilst the girls think its far too dangerous,
so head off to make the sandwiches :)