The current cadre of female New York City firefighters represent a decades-long struggle of some pioneering women to earn the right to save lives alongside their male comrades.
Leading that fight was Brenda Berkman, now a captain for the NYFD. She started her career in the formerly all-male fire service in 1982, after winning a federal sex discrimination lawsuit.
That lawsuit and the personal stories of the other female firefighters who have followed Berkman into service is the subject of a new PBS documentary, Taking the Heat.
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