- A physical abilities test the city is using to hire African-American firefighters in settlement of a race discrimination lawsuit is discriminatory against women, a suit filed Friday in U.S. District Court charges.
Godfrey et al vs. City of Chicago was filed by 20 female plaintiffs on behalf of all female applicants who recently took the test and failed.
“The city hasn’t been served yet with the lawsuit, so we cannot comment at this time,” said city Law Dept. spokesman Roderick Drew.
The women are already members of two other class-action suits.
Not to be sexist pigs and all, but if you can't drag the equipment up two or four or forty flights of stairs, how are you going to actually, you know, fight a fire? Anyone who insists there aren't any physical differences between men and women hasn't really been looking too closely.
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That isn't to say there aren't any number of women qualified to do the job. Many would probably out-perform us in various scenarios. Running, climbing come to mind. But you don't downgrade the entire testing process to accommodate people who can't do the basics. If we need help, we don't care who rescues us....as long as they can actually rescue us. Otherwise, what's the point?