Fresno Fire Department ignites change in male-dominated profession
KFSN
Share:
The Fresno Fire Department currently has five female firefighters and a female fire chief.
In a few years, all six are planning to retire. Before they do, they re igniting a change in the male-dominated profession.
Chief Kerri Donis has served with the department for nearly two decades and says the perception that women can t be firefighters is in the distant past. We have broken a lot of barriers and shown that we can do the job just like anyone else, Donis said.
In 2019, the department launched an aggressive campaign to recruit more women, including a one-day girls empowerment camp.
The Voice: A Future Leader Inspiring The Next Generation
Bushra Amiwala became the youngest Muslim to hold public office in the country when she was elected to be a Skokie school district school board member.
The Power Players: Shattering Stereotypes To Show We Can Do It
Patrice Banks is an engineer turned mechanic who in 2016 founded the Girls Auto Clinic, a Pennsylvania-based repair center staffed by and focusing on women. As part of her #SheCANic movement, Banks teaches women about car mechanics so they can more confidently and comfortably navigate car repairs.
Kimberly Bryant is an engineer and founder of Black Girls Code who is helping Black girls program their own future. She is motivating these girls to see themselves as creators, engineers and future tech bosses.
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) Imitation is the highest form of flattery.
In the late 1960s, a young Tommie Ross found an idol to emulate: the legendary Diana Ross, leading lady of The Supremes. Everything I saw, for some reason, flipped the switch on me and I was in love, Ross said.
That imitation eventually became Ross act, then later in life it led to self-discovery.
Ross was born in Houston s Third Ward as Tommy Jones and then legally changed her name in 1990. Now, she s a legend in the world of drag. I ve won a lot of national titles. I m a former Miss Gay USA, Ross said.
But Gilmore will be leaving the bench on January 2, 2022, pivoting to a destination unknown.
She already bought a retirement gift for herself. I just wanted to have a ring that symbolizes me leaving the gilded cage of the federal judiciary and going out into the world, she said.
In 1994, Gilmore was the youngest ever appointee to a federal judgeship at just 36 years old.
A legal career wasn t the plan when she enrolled at Hampton University, historically Black college and university, at age 16 to study fashion.
After graduating, she worked as a buyer for Foley s in downtown. Then an inside job apartment burglary changed everything.
Even today, nothing in our Constitution guarantees equal rights regardless of your sex.
Now the fight to add the ERA to the Constitution is taking on a new momentum, building off the roots of the 1970s progressive women s movement that took place right here in Houston.
In the early 1970s the women s movement seemed unstoppable. Energy was so high? It was just amazing. Just absolutely amazing. We felt we could conquer the world, said Dr. Nancy Joyner, former vice president of the American Association of University Women in 1977.
Born from a commission, the Kennedy Administration created the National Organization for Women, or NOW. It was formed in 1966 to fight for women s rights that, until then, had been largely ignored.