By Ben Smith
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Copyright 2007 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — A woman who worked as a Gwinnett County firefighter has sued her former employer, saying she was ostracized, denied advancement and told that “her place” was in the kitchen.
Former firefighter Angela McMichael says that she “was relentlessly subjected to discrimination based on her gender” during her four years with Gwinnett Fire & Emergency Services.
She filed a federal sex discrimination suit last month.
McMichael, who resigned in April, is seeking unspecified damages, court costs, attorneys fees and an injunction forbidding future discrimination by the department.
Lt. Tommy Rutledge, spokesman for Gwinnett Fire & Emergency Services, referred calls to the county’s legal department. County Attorney Karen Thomas declined to discuss specific allegations contained in the lawsuit.
“We’re working on gathering information, and we will be filing a response next week,” said Thomas. “I don’t have a lot to say right now since we’re working on our response. But I anticipate we will be denying her claim.”
McMichael alleges other firefighters constantly made remarks that made her feel unwelcome.
When she was preparing meals or cleaning up in the station kitchen, “fellow firefighters would state that she ‘had finally found her place,’ ” the lawsuit says.
McMichael alleges that she was told repeatedly that “women are only a distraction on the fire ground.”
She also claims that a supervisor told her she wasn’t supposed to be assigned to his station because she was a woman. When McMichael complained to one of his superiors, she was told, “Well, you are a girl,” the lawsuit states.
McMichael also alleges her supervisor wouldn’t give her enough driving hours on a fire engine to qualify her for a promotion. McMichael said she had to work on vacation days to get more driving time.
In June 2005, according to the lawsuit, McMichael was “sternly” told that she “would be the one that looked bad if she continued to press the issues she was raising regarding her gender.”
McMichael says her career was ruined because of her experience with the Gwinnett fire department. She now works as an emergency medical technician for Grady Hospital, according to her lawyer, Adam Jaffe.
“Nobody [in the Gwinnett Fire Department] wanted her in the first place,” Jaffe said. “When she started to complain, her treatment got worse.
“That’s when she truly began to fear for her life,” Jaffe said. “Because if she went into a fire, she feared no one would have her back.”