3. There Are Only 28 Female Firefighters and 10,000 Males in the FDNY

Currently, there are around 10,000 uniformed firefighters in New York City, but only 28 of them are female. It wasn’t until 1977 that women were allowed to take the test to become firefighters. And even though most did well on the written section, not one of the 90 women who applied passed the physical portion of the exam. Five years later, Federal District Judge Charles P. Sifton ruled that the FDNY did not fairly measure the abilities to become a firefighter. 42 women passed the new test, and in 1982 became the first women to enter the FDNY.