Brenda Berkman: NYC Firefighter and Recipient of the Susan B. Anthony Award

In 1977, New York City announced that for the first time it would accept female applicants to become firefighters. Soon after, 89 women applied to join the FDNY. However, that year the fire academy entrance test was allegedly designed with the intention of excluding women. None of the women passed the exam, but one woman caught on and was not going to give up so easily.

Brenda Berkman was a law student at NYU when she applied to become a firefighter. When she was denied entrance into the academy, she sought the help of NYU law professor Laura Sager and former New York Congresswoman Bella Abzug. Brenda began a class action lawsuit against New York City, which resulted in the 1982 ruling that would alter the firefighter academy exam to allow women a chance of passing it. That same year, 40 women (including Brenda Berkman), passed the entrance exam and completed the firefighter academy, becoming the first female firefighters in NYC history.

Brenda Berkman on integrating the NYFD and the steep price she and others paid to win equality. Watch more at MAKERS.com! Subscribe to MAKERS http://www.yout...

On September 11, 2001, Brenda was still a proud member of the FDNY. She was off duty that day, but when she heard about the first plane hitting the World Trade Center, she threw on her uniform and went to the nearest fire station. In a 2001 interview with WomenseNews.com, Berkman recalled, "I got to the site after the second collapse. The scene was beyond belief: choking air, burning cars and buses, twisted metal. It was all paper and dust. No big pieces of concrete, like you might expect." The firefighters that Brenda had arrived with immediately went to work searching for survivors.

Eventually, Berkman linked up with her fire unit. She soon found out that five members of her fire company were missing in the ruble. Brenda was hopeful of finding he lost colleagues, saying "I thought: We can find them. Thousands of people were missing and they must be somewhere. We’ll start now and get them to the hospital, and that will be that." However, none of those five members survived that day. In total, 343 firefighters lost their lives on 9/11.

Berkman would retire from the FDNY in 2006, at the rank of Captain. She remains an advocate for gender equality in the field of firefighting. She now volunteers as a tour guide at the September 11th Memorial and Museum in New York City. Some notable awards and honors she has received during her career include the Susan B. Anthony Award and the Women of Courage Award from the National Organization for Women, as well as serving as a White House Fellow for the Secretary of Labor during the Clinton presidency.

I'll leave you with this very inspiring quote from Brenda - "While I undoubtedly made mistakes and took some wrong turns pursuing my passions for the fire service and for equal opportunities for women, I don’t regret taking the heat for advocating for change. In a small way I was trying to challenge the stereotypes and fears that keep us from achieving our greatest potential. If I could be a firefighter – you can be anything."

Written by: Buck Johnson