I haven’t always been a fan of the idea that women can do the same jobs as men. I think that for the most part, there are jobs that women just can’t keep up doing. Nevertheless, like every rule, the idea of women doing a job that is traditionally a male only job, can be broken. Of course, the reality of that idea is that it takes a specific kind of woman, with a specific kind of determination, to tough it out and prove herself in a job that most women would simply never even try to do. One such job used to be, firefighting, and more specifically, smoke jumping. Just the weight of the equipment and the rugged terrain these firefighters had to deal with is more daunting than most men, much less women, would attempt. Thankfully, however, there are people out there with “the right stuff” necessary to do such a job.
It has been said of what it takes to become a smokejumper, “The physical training was rigorous, fighting fires in remote wilderness was dangerous, and jumping out of perfectly good airplanes in the vicinity of burning forest and brush fires may have been a tad crazy.” I’d say it would be considered too crazy for most of us, especially women, but Deanne Shulman was no ordinary woman…she was one very determined woman. For Shulman, the biggest challenge was that of going up against, or rather working with, the men who did not want her there. Of her experience, Shulman said, “From 1974, basically, through 1981, sexual harassment and a hostile work environment were a daily part of my life. There was no definition of sexual harassment. There was no definition of hostile work environment…nobody thought it was bad. It was kind of accepted that if you entered a male-dominated field, this is what you get.” Nevertheless, this was the field Shulman wanted to be in, and she wasn’t about to back down.
She was first hired by the U.S. Forest Service in 1974 on the Los Padres National Forest…one of two women, the first women hired on that forest in the firefighter position. She didn’t realize that she would be making history. She just wanted to fight fires. She had been discouraged repeatedly, being told that “no woman would 
ever serve on this crew!” Nevertheless, Shulman wasn’t going anywhere. She would fight for her place in this male-dominated world. As the seasons passed, Shulman began to prove herself with various fire crews, even being invited to serve on the very crew she was previously told she would never be on. Talk about an honor, or maybe a little bit of “watch me” if you don’t think so!! The harassment Shulman endured was rampant, but there was also quiet support along the way, mentors, advisers, and even peers whom she realized later had her back.
Parachuting in any capacity is more than I would want to do, but if I did, I would want a nice soft open field to land in. Not smokejumpers. They sometimes prefer landing in a tree, because it may be less hazardous than rocky, steep, uneven terrain that would be the alternative, and which posed injury risks. The risks were even greater during Shulman’s era, with the now nearly obsolete round parachute, which comes down so fast, jumpers must collapse their body frame to avoid breaking their ankles.
Shulman stuck it out to gain even more experience as a wildland firefighter, and then in 1979, she decided to try to jump into the elite world of the smokejumper. That was even harder to break into. She knew there would be a stringent physical fitness test required to break into this male-only field, so she worked out all winter to prepare herself for what was to come. She also knew there was a minimum weight requirement of 130 pounds, which makes no sense for a woman, because for many women, 130 would be overweight. Shulman weighed 125. She says, “I thought, ‘Well, I’ll just eat a lot of candy and cookies and cake, and I’ll get to 130.'” After driving from California up to the Pacific Northwest, Shulman underwent the physical tests and passed. It was only then that she was ordered to report to the hospital to get weighed. The result was exactly where she started…125 pounds. Shulman wanted to cry, but she would not give these men the satisfaction. She walked across the base to gather her things to leave. Some male colleagues stopped her to tell her no one they had ever heard of had been fired for being underweight. In fact, one male firefighter, nicknamed “Mouse,” weighed even less than Shulman, but he had come back from Vietnam after serving as a “tunnel rat,” climbing into the below-ground maze the enemy used to evade American troops. They told her that because of his service, “Mouse” had received a congressional waiver to be admitted to the smokejumper crew.
Shulman decided that if one person could get a waver, so could she. She wrote letters, appealed to higher-ups, appealed to their sense of logic, fair play, and the better angels of their nature. Her hard work paid off. In 1981, she became a smokejumper at McCall Smokejumper Base in Idaho. She quickly found herself having to prove her abilities again, but she was up for the task. Her intelligence, courage, stamina, strength, and knowledge of firefighting soon won them over, and Shulman was finally able to say, “By my fourth season, the McCall Smokejumpers were bragging that they had the first woman smokejumper.” Not only had she earned her place as a smokejumper, but she had also earned the respect of her fellow jumpers.
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