JPeelen said:

Most of the fire brigade system in Germany is manned by volunteers.

Yes you are absolutely right. I forgot to mention these. Since I grew up and live in a large town I tend to think about firemen as profesionals. But even the town I live in has several platoons of volunteers in addition to the professionals.

JPeelen said:

The typical fireman/-woman is "one of us".

To be honest there are so few firewomen that one can safely speak of firemen in general. There are conciderable more police women and female soldiers compared to female firefighters.
Just googeled it and it turns out my view is sort of influenced by my professional firebrigade thinking. The percentage of professional firewomen in Germany is under 2 %. But for the volunteers its ~10 %. Which is still not much but at least a significant part.

It should also be noted that several smaller towns and communities have serious troubles raising the required number of volunteer firefighters. Therefor in some cases an old law has been reinstated allowing a community or town to draft people into the firebrigade.

graylion said:

This strikes me as incredibly Anglosphere in that it is based on voluntary acts, not legal rights. I am wondering how non-Anglosphere countries address this issue?

Well, my 02 cents for France.

Remember that France was described as a "successful socialist country" ("not failed yet" would be closer to the truth), we were a state before being a nation.

In France, everything should start from the state (a "top down" approach, mostly because French people are too undisciplined to make a "bottom up" approach to work), so the French way of working is strict "top to bottom" management mixed with "bottom up" chaos and innovation.

Anyway, just like Germany, we have a universal health care system that is not linked to your employer, so you are not losing "rights" when you retire from the army, or any other organisation, or even private sector.

I started my "career" working for a public laboratory, then worked for a large private company, then a small business company, then now for the MoD, and those changes had a negligible impact on my health coverage.

EmericD said:

In France, everything should start from the state (a "top down" approach, mostly because French people are too undisciplined to make a "bottom up" approach to work), so the French way of working is strict "top to bottom" management mixed with "bottom up" chaos and innovation.

Russia is much the same

We have an universal healthcare that covers most everything, including the dental care, organs and joints replacements, life-supporting drugs and procedures etc etc

Everybody is entitled to it and in fact it is called "mandatory health insurance" which everybody must get free of charge

MoD also has some medical institutions and general healthcare clinics which usually offer same level of service as civilian ones, including medical acdemies that both offer education for doctors and special healthcare for MoD personnel

All firefighters are professionals, and our EmerCom (Ministry of Emergency Situations) has special schools and universities to train rescuers, firefighters and other emergency personnel at all levels, from the field operatives to planners and unit commanders.

As why most firefighters are men, I think the answer is obvious. It's a very hard work, with a lot depending on the physical strength and fitness. And regardless of the modern theories of bazilion of gender constructs, the basic built-in differences between male and female are still there.

mpopenker said:

As why most firefighters are men, I think the answer is obvious. It's a very hard work, with a lot depending on the physical strength and fitness. And regardless of the modern theories of bazilion of gender constructs, the basic built-in differences between male and female are still there.

This is generally true and goes for a lot of professions. Its true for the military and police for example. Yet there are conciderable more females in these. This makes the professional firebrigade stand out.
I know the answer why. Its pretty simple really. The firebrigade never lowered their standards or introduced special standards for women. Everybody has to perform to the same standard. Which simply results in the vast majority of females being washed out of the application process.
In Germany there is one specific aditional requirement. To apply as professional firefighter it is a requirement to have a certificate of apprenticeship in a craft or technical vocation. Like carpenter, mechanic, locksmith etc. there are very few females in these fields to begin with.
Neither the police nor the military has such a requirement. Which vastly increases their base of applicants.

schnuersi said:

The firebrigade never lowered their standards or introduced special standards for women

Yes. And I think that on average a firebrigade encounters serious life-threatening risks much more often than a typical cop or a soldier, maybe even more that a typical SF operator

So they are much more dependent, quite literally, on a strong hand and strong spirit of their team members

Veterans cannot be treated differently. I have read this law and fully support it