“Women are equal to men. A woman can do anything and be anything she wants if she works hard enough.”
Such was the convincing message many women showed the world once upon a time. For example, career-driven women would send this message by being strong and independent in their chosen fields, with some becoming successful business owners. Other women would become highly respected in fields where they previously hadn’t held as much influence, such as politics and sports.
However, this message of equality came with a caveat, which is that while men and women are equal, they are still different–physically, mentally, and emotionally. Women are not the same as men. They are not designed to be identical to men. Men and women balance each other. Our differences should be embraced, not viewed in all cases as problems that need to be corrected–or equalized.
Take, for instance, what is happening in New York City. In December of 2014, the NY Fire Department announced that it would stop requiring would-be firefighters to pass the very physical Functional Skills Training test in order to graduate from the fire academy. The test required recruits to perform a number of tasks including wearing full gear while climbing flights of stairs and dragging dummies through burning building simulations. Recruits were supposed to finish the test in 18 minutes or less. But now the policy has changed, and passing the test is no longer a requirement to becoming a probationary firefighter.
This policy change came about after city council members and others criticized the NYFD for the lack of women in its ranks. As a result of this policy change, the first woman to not meet the physical standards test is now a New York firefighter, bringing the number of women to 46 to work with the 14,500 male New York firefighters. This woman completed the test once, and it took her over 22 minutes to do so. Those four minutes can make the critical difference between life or death.
Two other women who graduated with her completed the test within the time limit. They were able to prove that they were equal to the same tasks that men have. What does this show them, that they worked their asses off for nothing? You two were equal, but it’s not fair that I wasn’t, so they changed the rules and now I’m equal to you and them, so nyah! Yay, feminism!
This same lowering of physical standards may soon be expected of our military for certain units and jobs in order to satisfy the demands of the Obama Administration and some within the Pentagon.
If women are equal to men in strength, endurance, and other physical qualities, why ignore the physical test standards? If women are truly equal, shouldn’t they be able to pass the same tests that men have to take? Should the new policy retroactively apply to men and women who failed the physical tests prior to the lowered standards?
This current push to feminize occupations where physical strength is vital to our safety and security is dangerous–not only for the people who are supposed to be protected but also for those who work alongside the protectors. In a life-or-death situation that comes with being a firefighter or someone in the military, it must be difficult to have complete faith in your partner knowing that he or she never passed the physical requirements for the job.
At some point, the caveat of “equal but different” got lost. The modern breed of feminists demands that more women must be accepted into fields of work that have long been dominated by men. The feminists insist that this acceptance comes not by achieving the same standards as men in those fields but instead by whining, bitching, and moaning until the standards in those fields are lowered to accommodate more women. Lowering standards is an admission that women are in fact NOT equal, which diminishes the achievements of those who have met the previously higher standards.
Feminism is allegedly a movement that’s supposed to make women feel empowered. Its message is supposed to make women realize that they can achieve great things when they put in the effort. But when the effort is no longer necessary, no one is empowered, and people’s lives could be put at risk. If you are a woman who demands that others lower their expectations of you, you are not a feminist. You are the opposite. You are an anti-feminist.
