For those of you who don’t know I will briefly explain. An FBI applicant, recruit, or whatever was dismissed from the FBI training because he failed to do 30 untimed pushups as part of a follow up physical test. He agrees that he only did 29 of the 30 required but filed a lawsuit against the FBI saying that women were allowed to contiune training after only being required to complete 14 pushups, far less that his 29. Does the recruit, Jay Bauer, have a legitimate case? I would say no, but there are thousands of others that may. I agree that Bauer has no case and should have been dismissed from the training, but your simple dismissal and wannabe “Freudian” explanation doesn’t get it.
First and foremost there are reasons for the physical qualifications. They don’t just simply and arbitrarily pull them out of the air. Men have been told for years that there are concrete reasons for physical qualifications only to let females achieve the same status with less physical qualifications. Shouldn’t they be the same?? I will elaborate more on this in a minute.
Bauer has no legitimate complaint, but the thousands of male agents that did the 30 pushups, only to serve with women who are required to do less, do have a complaint. If 30 pushups is an agreed standard, then 30 pushups should be required regardless of age or sex.
Let me give you a “less watered” down example. In 1995 I joined a major Fire Department in the South who had very “physically demanding” requirements. They were directly associated with the job such as carrying a “charged” hose up 5 flights of stairs, carrying a 150lb dummy 100 feet, and other demanding activities. Very few women were able to complete the physical entrance test. There were a few, and they were good firefighters, but there wasn’t very many women on the FD. The Justice Dept. stepped in and decided that there wasn’t enough female FF and made the city lower the standards for female applicants. Naturally soon after the quality of the Fire Companies in the city deteriorated, but that ‘s not the end of the story. Once word got out that the women were being admitted to the Academy without completing the requirements, some male applicants sued and so the city throughout the physical entrance exam altogether. Now the quality of the FD and fire protection for this city has dropped significantly for the citizens of that area.
The bottom line is that standards are (and should be) there for a reason. Set them and if they can pass those standards, male or female, fine if not choose another profession. Jobs known as “public service” are called that for a reason, the serve the public and most in very impotant ways. Therefore if standards are set for legitimate reason they should not be lowered or adjusted for any reason.
GUIDE ON!
Modern Day Machiavelli 