Women and children first? Maybe

[Zywiec]

Whether it is "Women and children first" or "Every man for himself" in a shipwreck may depend on how long it takes the ship to sink, researchers said Monday.

When the Lusitania was torpedoed by a German U-boat in 1915, it sank in 18 minutes and the bulk of survivors were young men and women who responded immediately to their powerful survival instincts.

But when the Titanic struck an iceberg in 1912, it took three hours to go down, allowing time for more civilized instincts to take control. -- and the bulk of the survivors were women, children and people with young children.

<snip>

But psychologists noted that many factors other than following social norms could come into play in a disaster, including an evolutionary imperative to save the species, attachments that are formed between individuals during the event and the leadership of authority figures.

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/mar/02/science/la-sci-titanic-web2-2010mar02


Is it sexist to allow women to get off a sinking ship before men?

I think there shouldn't be any priority given based on your sex. What do you think?

[polly7]

1. Which will defend their young in a den of wolves, or a litter of

puppies, the sire? No. A mother would die for them, preserving at least that generation. Humans? ....... that's getting hard to say, lately. Tough question.

[asdjrocky]

2. When all else fails, I go with what my Mom taught me.

Women and children first, always.

[SmileyRose]

3. Children and their primary caretaker first

which is normally Mom.

I've read a lot of stories from Titanic. Seems to me an awful lot of older women, past child bearing or rearing age, insisted on staying with their husbands and only left the ship when/if he could.

[Sherman A1]

4. I think it should be

women & children first

[Warpy]

5. Children are the future and women are generally their caretakers

so if we were facing population scarcity, it would make a great deal of sense. After all, if few sperm donors survive, we will still go on.

These uncivilized days of overpopulation pressures making us all a little nuts, that rule likely no longer applies.

[glen123098]

6. Women get so much shit in many ways that...

I guess its ok that they get at least one advantage. If I were on a sinking ship, I would give up my place on a rescue boat for a woman.

[Cid_B]

7. Heinlein wrote about it...

"All societies are based on rules to protect pregnant women and young children. All else is surplusage, excrescence, adornment, luxury, or folly which can--and must--be dumped in emergency to preserve this prime function. As racial survival is the only universal morality, no other basic is possible. Attempts to formulate a "perfect society" on any foundation other than "Women and children first!" is no only witless, it is automatically genocidal. Nevertheless, starry-eyed idealists (all of them male) have tried endlessly--and no doubt will keep on trying. "

-Notebooks of Lazarus Long

http://www.bobgod.com/lazaruslong.html

[elehhhhna]

8. On the Titanic, the wealthy men got off and more of them survived than

did the women in the cheap seats (steerage).

Great Aunt Bridget Donahoo died because she was in the cheap seats.

[elehhhhna]

9. On the Titanic, the wealthy men got off and more of them survived than

did the women in the cheap seats (steerage).

Great Aunt Bridget Donahoo died because she was in the cheap seats.

[babydollhead]

10. I wish Jack didn't die, but I'm glad Rose lived.

If they had just taken turns holding onto the bed frame!

[Zywiec]

11. I'm suprised by some of the responses

The only women and children before me would be my own. After that, I will go with the societal norm of treating everyone equally regardless of sex.