Birkenhead Drill

"Women and children first", known to a lesser extent as the Birkenhead drill, is an unofficial code of conduct and gender role 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. In the 19th and early 20th century, "women and children first" was seen as a chivalric ideal. The concept "was celebrated among Victorian and Edwardian commentators as a long-standing practice – a 'tradition', 'law of human nature', 'the ancient chivalry of the sea', 'handed down in the race'." Its practice was featured in accounts of some 18th-century shipwrecks with greater public awareness during the 19th century. Notable invocations of the concept include during the 1852 evacuation of the Royal Navy troopship HMS Birkenhead, the 1857 sinking of the ship SS Central America, and most famously during the 1912 sinking of the Titanic. Despite its prominence in the popular imagination, the doctrine was unevenly applied. The use of "women and children first" during the Birkenhead evacuation was a "celebrated exception", used to establish a tradition of English chivalry during the second half of the 19th century. In a 2012 interview with the BBC, maritime expert Robert Ashdown stated that, in modern-day evacuations, people will usually help the most vulnerable – typically those injured, elderly or very young – to escape first. A 2012 study by Uppsala University economists argued that the "women and children first" rule is a myth, and that men have a survival advantage in shipwrecks, with a survival rate of 34.5% compared to 17.8% for women in a sample of 18 disasters. The study, which analyzed over 15,000 people across different nationalities and time periods, concluded with the proposition that crew members are also significantly more likely to survive than passengers.