Have women achieved equal status to men yet?

[Kyuuketsuki]

Kyu, are you talking about the New Haven firefighters case, or something else entirely?

I'll bite. How is it taken to exteme in the fire service?

Not specifically that case (never even heard of it) but it could well be something similar.

Turns out I've posted about it already in this thread, Political Correctness Gone Mad .. here's the intro paragraph which refers specifically to it:

I have a friend who is a fireman, in the UK (and I suspect it's much the same in other countries) firemen work in pairs, "buddies" and each is expected to look after their partner in the event that one of them goes down. To cut a long story short my friend complained to me that they had bypassed the height/weight/fitness standards to allow a number of women that didn't fulfil them into the career. Now I'm all for equality in principle but there are some things some people are better equipped for than others (that's just the way of the world) and typically a man is capable of carrying more and of being more physically fit than women and not only does this cause issues with respect to a person's ability to lug the heavy fire-equipment into dangerous situations but, unless these women are of a reasonable physical equivalence to their male "buddies" (perhaps "built like a brick sh**house" as we say in the UK) there is a very significant risk that they can actually endanger their buddy if, in the event their partner is incapacitated, they are unable to get their buddy out of danger. Positive discrimination of this kind is a sign that political correctness is being carried way too far.

That, I know, is about political correctness but it also demonstrates why Men and Women are not (and should not) be viewed as entirely equal ... don't get me wrong I am very much for the principle of equality but there are some things which simply cannot be handled that way (such as this example). Women (on average) are unlikely ever to be physically the equal of (average) men, men shouldn't be viewed as equal when it comes to childbirth (yeah I know it's technically possible for a man to give birth) though that's probably a poor example ... what I am badly trying to get across is that men and women aren't equal , individuals aren't equal, we all have a widely varying set of attributes and skills and although we should be equal in the eyes of the law some sense should prevail when evaluiating some things such as equality.

Kyu