Berkman Earned Her Laurels

When Brenda Berkman spearheaded the lawsuit that compelled the Fire Department to modify its physical test, leading to the hiring of 41 women as Firefighters 24 years ago, it was common for veteran firemen and union officials to say she wasn't long for the job.

Ms. Berkman was regarded as an exasperating curiosity by them, on the same plane as the feminists who demanded a decade earlier that they be served by McSorley's Ale House and then, after that first draught, decided it wasn't a place they wanted to make a long-term hangout. She had her law degree, after all, and why would she want to make a career of risking her life when she could have a cushier, risk-free job with oak paneling rather than diesel fumes providing the atmosphere?

It perhaps never occurred to them that someone who placed a bull's eye on herself by becoming the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, then endured rampant harassment and humiliation during her training period from instructors who should have conducted themselves with a bit more class, was serious about firefighting, and brought to it the same passion as the men who do the job with such pride. (More than a few of them, after all, have degrees or skills that would allow them to make more money in less-dangerous occupations.)

Presumably her old antagonists figured that out by last week, when Ms. Berkman, who had risen to become a Captain, finally retired from the FDNY. It's notable that she stayed on for five full years after 9/11, although she probably could have collected a better pension had she put in her papers several years ago and taken advantage of sizable overtime earnings accumulated in the wake of the disaster that claimed 343 FDNY lives. Instead, she hung around long enough to depart knowing that the department had replenished its ranks and trained its younger force to carry on admirably.

There will always be those who protest that Ms. Berkman and the women who entered the department with her came in on a pass because the physical exam they were given was not offered to male candidates who failed the original test and were not part of the class-action suit. Such thinking is narrow and short-sighted.

The women who were part of that 1982 class were tested many times over by the ostracism and harassment they encountered from their male colleagues. Those who fought through it and made careers in the Fire Department amply demonstrated that they were worthy of being known as The Bravest.