Firefighters - Men or Women?

Since I was a little girl, I have been amazed with how my father was able to run into a burning building whenever everyone else was running out. I grew up admiring and being in awe of firefighters. Running to the fire station with my dad whenever I could so that I could play on the fire trucks, going to practice burns, longing to suit up and run in beside my dad, watching movies like "Backdraft" over and over again, playing with toy fire trucks with my brother, wearing firefighter tee-shirts and earrings, among many other things. As you can see, my childhood revolved around firefighters and I loved that. My fondest memories as a child involved something fire related. So, it was only natural for me to grow up wanting to become a firefighter, and until about a year ago, that was my plan. But slowly as more firefighter movies and television shows came out, I realized something, only once in a blue moon was a female portrayed as a firefighter. At first this made me even more determined to pursue my dream, but this eventually changed. As I researched the reason for this, I found out that they lower the standards for women and that some women firefighters were made to pass just so that fire stations could fill the minority quota. I was appalled at this fact! I mean, yes I do want to be a firefighter but not if I'm just there to fill a minority quota. Plus if the standards are lowered can a woman to do the job just as well as a man. I understand that there are some physical differences between men and women, but maybe that's why firefighters have been men from the beginning of time. Women can't expect standards to be lowered for them, because when it comes down to it, in the moment when a person is trapped behind a door if you can't bust open the door, that person could die because of you. In today's world where everyone thinks that they should be equal, I understand