https://www.google.com/search?q=women+in+firefighter&espv=2&biw=1236&bih=606&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwih08HXmc7JAhXISBQKHSvuAToQ_AUIBigB#imgrc=w5c0S2apsm0iGM%3A

All over the nation, fire departments are easing physical standards, in response to litigation to increase the number of women firefighters. It’s roiling fire departments, and the turmoil is a preview of what’s to come for the US military, which has committed to opening all combat roles to women by 2016. Wax tried six times to pass New York’s Functional Skills Test within the 17-minute, 50-second deadline. Five times she couldn’t finish at all; on the sixth try, she needed 22 minutes. Women’s groups claim the test is needlessly difficult and unfairly bars women. Trainees wearing 50 pounds of gear and breathing through an air tank must climb six stories, raise ladders, break down doors and drag a dummy through a dark tunnel, all at breakneck speed. Sounds like firefighting. As a result, there are more women firefighters. 

all asians good at math?

http://www.8asians.com/2009/04/01/no-seriously-asians-are-good-at-math/

The stereotype that Asians are good at math has probably haunted every Asian reading 8Asians at one time or another. It’s certainly not a new topic, and 8Asians covered this topic in 2008 and twice in2007. This week the Taiwanese enforced the “Asians are better at math” stereotype when Taiwanese schoolchildren excelled in a U.S. sponsored world math speed contest. In addition Taiwanese excellence in math was a topic this week in this years’ annual ASCD conference, where a paper was presented on “Academic Excellence: Learning from Taiwanese Excellence”.

These two headlines caught my attention since I was born in Taiwan and moved to the U.S. when I was two. Throughout my academic career, I was always known as the math geek. I suppose there was good reason for this, as I did excel in math. I don’t say this to brag, but I did get an 800 on my math PSAT and Math Achievement I (now known as theSAT Subject Tests). I was even on Math Team as co-captain. So I was a perfect fit for the stereotype, and probably the type of math student you hated, as I perpetuated the stereotype you were subject to in school.

But lest you start hating me too soon, I should explain why I was the math geek. My mom, who immigrated to the U.S. and never finished college, made sure math was my life. Before I was the age of five, my mom had drilled the multiplication tables into my head, so that I could recite every permutation up to 12 times 12. If I messed up, I got a slap on the back of the hand with a ruler, so I had plenty of incentive to get it right.