Female firefighter still fight for equality: 'We're assumed incompetent'

JOLIET, Ill. - The Oval Office notwithstanding, there are very few workplaces left in the United States where women have not gained entry.

But in one of the last places in the workforce where a virtual male monopoly endures - fire stations - it's still possible in 2018 for departments to hire their first female firefighters.

Such is the case in Joliet, which announced this month it took on its first female recruit in its 165-year history. Though many departments started hiring women decades ago, some still have only one woman firefighter and some have none.

Nationwide, only about 4 percent of firefighters are women, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, even as that figure has risen to about 14 percent in police work and the military. Even traditionally male occupations like farming and construction management have higher percentages of women than firefighting.

"The numbers are abysmal," said Cheryl Horvath, a former firefighter in downstate Urbana and past president of the International Association of Women in Fire & Emergency Services. "I don't know that we've been able