APRIL SAUL / Inquirer Staff Photographer
Donning waders, Diane Schweizer stands in her 5,000-gallon fish pond, which is her passion."It's like my getaway. . . . Some people watch TV or sew. I like to take care of my pond."
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Commanding female presence
The first woman to make fire chief in Phila. is not a firefighter.
"If people know you're credible, they don't tend to hassle you. I'm strong. I can work. It was never an issue of me not being able to do my job. I've always been treated equally."
Contact staff writer Gail Shister at 215-854-2224 or gshister@phillynews.com. Read her recent work at http://go.philly.com/gailshister.
By late 2003, however, Schweizer almost left the department to study medicine because "it wasn't challenging enough for me."
That changed when former Commissioner Harold Hairston, her mentor and best man at her wedding, named her the department's public information officer.
Again, she was the first woman in the post. This time, there was real tension, she says.
"People were waiting for me to fail. Nobody did anything specific, but they were watching my every move."
She didn't fail, of course. For Schweizer, failure is not an option. In fact, the last example she could remember was her New Jersey driver's test when she was 17.
"No matter what the obstacle, I don't give up," she says. "If I don't do it the first time, I'll keep doing it until it's done. There's nothing I won't try or do."
Hail to the chief, gentlemen.
Contact staff writer Gail Shister at 215-854-2224 or gshister@phillynews.com. Read her recent work at http://go.philly.com/gailshister.
