Portsmouth, Va.-- Jeanette Hentze is a third generation firefighter.
"My father was a firefighter. My grandfather was a firefighter, " Hentze declares proudly. "As a young girl we all had a stigma, you can't be a firefighter, you're a girl kind of attitude."
But she beat the stigma and in 1989 became the first woman in the portsmouth fire department. In seventeen years of service to the city, she's earned honor and recognition, rising to become a Lieutenant.
Now, her dream is over.
"I was told the only thing the city purchases are men's turnout boots."
What she was told became part of an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission investigation of gender discrimination against the Portsmouth Fire Department.
Federal investigators found that "Evidence shows that females are denied appropriate footwear as firefighters. The denial of appropriate footwear has resulted in the injury of at least one female."
The investigation was started after Hentze was hurt. Working a fire scene last November.
"As you step down to pull the hose out, my foot shifted. The boots are too big. They're made for men. I could feel the pull right by my heel," she says.
Two torn tendons and forty five stitches later, hentze's career is finished. The eeoc, hentze, and her attorney say the department failed her.
Attorney Lisa Ann Bertini says, "I can't believe that in 2006, the City of Portsmouth allows its fire department to act the way it does against its female firefighters."
With the EEOC's ruling, the department has to make changes. Neither city officials, nor Fire Chief Newell Whitehead would comment on the case. Both say the issue is considered a personnel matter. But Hentze says she received a memo from the chief, changing policy effective October First. The memo gives female firefighters in the department the option of selecting a women's bunker boot.
It will cost the department just two dollars more than the men's 96 dollar boot. The decision comes too late for Jeanette Hentze who says she was forced out fire fighting.
Hentze says, "My career is over because of 98 dollars. I wanted to stay 30 years and try and make a difference."
Republished with permission of WAVY.
