Women and children first

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For other uses, see Women and children first (disambiguation).
Thomas Hemy's famous painting of soldiers standing fast on HMS Birkenhead while the women and children head off in a lifeboat in the background

"Women and children first" (or to a lesser extent, the Birkenhead Drill[1][2]) is an historical code of conduct whereby the lives of women and children were to be saved first in a life-threatening situation (typically abandoning ship, when survival resources such as lifeboats were limited). While the specific phrase first appeared in the 1860 novel Harrington: A True Story of Love, by William Douglas O'Connor,[3] it is famously associated with the sinking of RMS Titanic in 1912.

The first documented application of "women and children first" occurred during the 1852 evacuation of the Royal Navy troopship HMS Birkenhead. As a code of conduct, "women and children first" has no basis in maritime law, and according to University of Greenwich disaster evacuation expert Professor Ed Galea, in modern-day evacuations people will usually "help the most vulnerable to leave the scene first. It's not necessarily women, but is likely to be the injured, elderly and young children."[4] Furthermore, the results of a 2012 Uppsala University study suggest that the application of "women and children first" may have, in practice, been the exception rather than the rule.[5]

Contents

History [edit]

During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, ships typically did not carry enough lifeboats to save all the passengers and crew in the event of disaster. In 1870, answering a question at the House of Commons of the United Kingdom about the sinking of the paddle steamer Normandy, George Shaw-Lefevre said that[6]

"in the opinion of the Board of Trade, it will not be possible to compel the passenger steamers running between England and France to have boats sufficient for the very numerous passengers they often carry. They would encumber the decks, and rather add to the danger than detract from it"

By the turn of the 20th century, larger ships meant more people could travel, but safety rules regarding lifeboats remained out of date: for example, British legislation concerning the number of lifeboats was based on the tonnage of a vessel and only encompassed vessels of "10,000 gross tons and over". The result was that a sinking usually involved a moral dilemma for passengers and crew as to whose lives should be saved with the limited available lifeboats.

The practice of women and children first arose from the chivalrous actions of soldiers during the sinking of the Royal Navy troopship HMS Birkenhead in 1852 after it struck rocks. The captain promptly ordered the wives and children aboard (20 in all) to enter one of the small boats available while the men aboard were set to trying to save the ship. When the ship did break up, the colonel countermanded the captain's order to make for the boats as he thought they would be swamped - the troops obeyed. Only about 25% of the men survived the wreck and none of the senior officers did. The sinking was memorialized in newspapers and paintings of the time, and in poems such as Rudyard Kipling's "Soldier an' Sailor Too." Samuel Smiles, in his 1859 book Self-Help, described the principle being applied during Siege of Lucknow.[7]

RMS Titanic survivors aboard a collapsible lifeboat

Although never part of international maritime law, the phrase was popularised by its usage on the RMS Titanic,[8] where, as a consequence of this practice, 74% of the women on board were saved and 52% of the children, but only 20% of the men.[9] Some officers on the Titanic misinterpreted the order from Captain Smith, and tried to prevent men from boarding the lifeboats.[10][11] It was intended that women and children would board first, with any remaining free spaces for men. Because so few men were saved on the Titanic, those who did survive, like White Star official J. Bruce Ismay, were initially branded as cowards.[12]

There is no legal basis for the protocol of women and children first — according to International Maritime Organization regulations, ships have 30 minutes to load all passengers into lifeboats and maneuver the boats away.[4] History has furthermore shown that application of the protocol has been the exception rather than the rule. An Uppsala University study published in April 2012 analyzed maritime disasters covering a period of one and a half centuries, from 1852 to 2011, finding that of the eighteen disasters studied, in eleven cases the "women and children first" order was not given (in five it was given, and two cases were unknown).[5] The same study found that crew members have a relative survival advantage over passengers, and that general survival rates have been in favor of adult males rather than women or children. The particular case of RMS Titanic may therefore not be representative of maritime conduct in general.

The clothing worn by women, notably in the Victorian era, has played a role in the historical survival rates of men versus women at sea. With the sinking of the Royal Charter, the women were still dressing below decks when they should have been mustering with the men on the deck to abandon ship. Also, the women's bulky, billowing clothing limited their ability to swim in the heavy surf.[13]

Wider implications [edit]

Some writers have argued that the idea of men always putting women first in emergencies has been linked to concepts of essential gender differences that can be then used to justify denying women political equality.[14] Lucy Delap of Cambridge University writes that the British ruling class used the idea of male chivalry at sea to justify denying women the right to vote, contending that since men always behaved with chivalry by putting the interests (and lives) of women first, women didn't need to vote.[15][16]

Masculists characterise the practice as sexist and degrading.[17]

See also [edit]

References [edit]

  1. ^ Rudyard Kipling (2005). Collected Verse of Rudyard Kipling. Kessinger. p. 305. ISBN 1-4179-0750-9. 
  2. ^ Robert Anson Heinlein (1978). Double Star. Gregg Press. p. 169. ISBN 0-8398-2446-7. 
  3. ^ "Women and Children First". The Phrase Finder. Retrieved 2010-04-16. 
  4. ^ a b Tom de Castella (16 Jan 2012). "Costa Concordia: The Rules of Evacuating a Ship". BBC News. 
  5. ^ a b Elinder, Mikael; Erixson, Oscar (2012), Every man for himself: Gender, Norms and Survival in Maritime Disasters, Uppsala Universitet. 
  6. ^ The Parliamentary debates (Authorized edition), Volume 200, 21 March 1870, p.323-324 H. M. Stationery Office, 1870
  7. ^ Smiles, Samuel (1859). Self-Help. ISBN 1-4068-2123-3. 
  8. ^ Logan Marshall (2004). Sinking of the Titanic and Great Sea Disasters. ISBN 1-4191-4735-8. Retrieved 2008-02-27. 
  9. ^ Anesi, Chuck. "Titanic Casualty Figures". 
  10. ^ Lord, Walter. A Night to Remember. New York, NY: Bantam, 1997, p. 63 ISBN 978-0-553-27827-9
  11. ^ Ballard, Robert D. The Discovery of the Titanic. Toronto: Madison, 1987, p. 37 ISBN 978-0-446-67174-3
  12. ^ Benedict, Michael Les; Gardner, Ray (2000). "When That Great Ship Went Down". In the face of disaster: true stories of Canadian heroes from the archives of Maclean's. New York, N.Y: Viking. p. 204. ISBN 0-670-88883-4. 
  13. ^ John R. Stilgoe (2003). Lifeboat. University of Virginia Press. p. 234. ISBN 0-8139-2221-6. 
  14. ^ Sharon M. Meagher, ed. (2004). Women and Children First: Feminism, Rhetoric, and Public Policy. Suny Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-8285-8. 
  15. ^ George, Alison (30 July 2012). "Sinking the Titanic 'women and children first' myth". NewScientist. Retrieved 31 July 2012. 
  16. ^ Delap, Lucy. "Shipwrecked: women and children first?". University of Cambridge. 
  17. ^ Smith, Wes (1996-12-29). "Sensitive Guys Are Looking More Closely At Their Maleness". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on 2013-05-15. 

External links [edit]

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