Proof that one size doesn't fit all
Well over 100 years ago the invention of the bicycle is credited with having helped women loosen the bonds of physical discrimination. Decades before they shed Victorian modesty at the beach, they broke other fashion taboos and began wearing bloomers on bikes and in other public places. These days, cycling is an Olympic Games women's sport and the old fashions are to be found only in museums and fading photographs.
The principle of equal opportunity is now well established at work and play. But it is still not to be taken for granted. It works imperfectly at times, and can even seem to produce an outcome opposite to the one intended.
An example surfaced this week in Hong Kong, with suggestions by legislators that fitness tests for some of the disciplined services discriminated against women. Their concern was not different standards for men and women, but that the application of the same, non-discriminatory standards was unfair to women. Test results seem to indicate they have a point. Services which apply the same fitness standards for entry to men and women include customs and excise, immigration and fire services. The male-female pass ratios are 90 per cent to 26 per cent for customs, 66 to 38 for immigration and 39 to 0 for firefighters.
The most glaring discrepancy, in the firefighters' test, seems the most readily explained by the nature of the job. The Fire Services Department points out that firefighters face the same challenges when called out to a fire regardless of gender, so the fitness test has to be the same. Indeed, unfit firefighters could be a danger to themselves and the lives of others.
However, it is difficult to imagine that all the operational requirements of service with customs and immigration demand such an inflexible cross-gender standard of physical fitness.
Surely they can find room for some positive discrimination in favour of women candidates. The police service sets an example, with less rigorous fitness tests for women than for the males with whom they will serve. This is reflected in the male-female pass ratio of 73 to 61 per cent. The police force is reviewing its fitness standards for women because increasingly they are being required to perform tasks similar to men. It is to be hoped that any tightening of standards will be tempered with positive discrimination if necessary so that we may have fitter policewomen, but not fewer of them.
In the 1900s an author named Edward H. Clarke wrote that study was bad for women because it caused the brain to divert blood from their reproductive systems. The book containing this claim was so popular it went into 17 reprints. Women have come full circle since then. But this week's events show that slavish adherence to a non-discriminatory approach can be a blunt instrument of equal opportunity.
