# Women (& children) First **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 11, 2001, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-children-first/86827 "2001-10-11T17:15:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Lucky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Lucky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucky)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2001, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-children-first/86827/21 "2001-10-12T17:12:11Z")
> [@](#): > > Perhaps women hold the record in part because proportionally we have more body fat than men and fat is more buoyant…? Well, yes, that’s what Flymaster said and what we were discussing. Regardless, the specific example of swimming is just a tangent. The point was that the stronger people should help the weaker people, and the stronger people usually are the men, professional female swimmers aside. Why people should/would behave in this altruistic fashion is, I believe, a result of societal conditioning moreso than evolutionarily developed instinct. It would be interesting to see how many men would chose to save a woman and/or a child over themselves if no one was looking. I don’t mean to cast broad dispersions against the character of men, but one wonders if chivalrous behavior would be reduced for a lack of witnesses. It would also be interesting to know if this idea of women and children first exists cross-culturally. If it doesn’t, that would seem to suggest against evolutionary origin. ---
**Author:** ![tsunamisurfer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a698b9/32.png) [@tsunamisurfer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tsunamisurfer)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2001, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-children-first/86827/22 "2001-10-12T18:06:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by IzzyR \* > \*\* > The “propagation of the species” argument never occurred to me at all. Does this imply that people who are capable of reproducing should be saved before those who are past child bearing age (or who have been sterilized)? This is absurd. If people are merely saying that because the mentality helps propogate the species it has become irrationally implanted into the human psychology, I guess that might have some merit. But to use it as a real justification makes no sense at all. \*\* This entire thead is nutty. With more than a quarter-billion people in the US alone and over 6.2 billion worldwide, we need not worry about public policy as a tool of ensuring “the propagation of the species,” especially in regard to a few random disasters each year. ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2001, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-children-first/86827/23 "2001-10-12T22:36:29Z")
Remember as far as the Titanic goes, women & children first was true, starting with first class. The majority of first class women survived the majority of 3rd class women died. ---
**Author:** ![Rysdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7cd45c/32.png) [@Rysdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysdad)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2001, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-children-first/86827/24 "2001-10-13T00:40:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by tsunamisurfer \* > \*\*Let me remind that a (married) man who opts to be “chivalrous” and stay behind in a sinking ship or burning airplane/building is making his fateful decision for his wife and children, as well. \*\* Or _any_ man. BUT - Would I be able to look my son in the eye and say, “Yeah, I’m here, but I had to elbow that lady over the side first.” Maybe. 🙂 He needs me, too, and it’s pretty likely his mother ain’t gonna be where I am. My uncle worked at Cape Canaveral, and on rare occasions, a rocket went up for just a little ways before heading right back down. He said (since there were no children there) all of the women got a head start to run to the bunker first. He also said the slow ones had footprints on their backs. Sure, I’ll help the ladies get out. But they’d better hurry. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-children-first/86827.md?page=1)