About Women Empowerment

A full-time female firefighter on the fire department would have violated society’s ideals, which held that women were incapable of working in the department and would only cause division in the neighborhood. In addition, women were viewed by the society as agents of infidelity in the fire service and as lacking the necessary abilities for the job. However, the values of the fire department were that women needed to have the opportunity to work in the department and that they were equally capable of performing and delivering (Duflo, 2015). Additionally, according to the fire department, women had the capacity to pass the physical ability test and confident that they would go through the interview. The chief learned the values held by the community through the complaints they launched against a woman firefighter who was about to be hired by the department. He learned that family values were so dear to the community and women feared to lose their husbands to infidelity.

Additionally, the community women could not trust their fellow women with the lives of their spouses as they questioned the ability of women to pull their husbands out of a burning building. Hiring the woman candidate in the department would have resulted to rivalry between the fire chief and the political leaders and the community in general. Apparently, the Mayor and other city leaders were opposed to the issue of hiring a woman firefighter and going against their wish would have resulted in a severe political battle between the two parties. So as the fire chief to achieve the goal of hiring a female firefighter while not suffering any political impact, he should organize for mass public awareness of the ability of women to work efficiently in the department and demonstrate their competitiveness for the job (Duflo, 2015). There is a strong relationship between community’s values and local policy making since the community has a say in the local policy making process. If they oppose a certain policy, implementation of such a system would be difficult. On the other hand, if they are convinced that the policy to be made will be of benefit to them, they will support the policy and the implementation will be easy.

References

Duflo, E. (2015). Women empowerment and economic development. London: CEPR.