Women often face disadvantages when shipwrecks

The priority of saving women and children when ship sinks is mostly myth, a new study shows.

According to the BBC, researchers at Uppsala University (Sweden) have relied on survivors from 18 maritime disasters over the past three centuries to show that women are often at a disadvantage when a sinking disaster strikes. .

Meanwhile, the captain and the crew on the ship have a higher survival rate.

The sinking of the Titanic 100 years ago was considered a rare exception because the captain threatened to kill those who did not obey orders, to let the women and children go to the lifeboat first.

However, the priority for women and children is still a common rule in emergencies.

The shipwreck of HMS Birkenhead on February 26, 1852 is considered the beginning of the idea of ​​prioritizing saving women and children. Because there are so few lifeboats on board, women and children are given priority while men have to swim on the sea by themselves.

As a result, 191 people survived and 365 died in this disaster.

Mikael Elinder and Erixson Oscar, the author of the study, said the captain had the right to enforce the rules.

However, the fact that when standing between the boundary between life and death, each man takes care of himself.

When the SS Arctic ship (USA) sank in September 1854, women and children were prioritized on lifeboats. However, the crew members are the ones who won before leaving the captain's request. The result was 227 deaths including all women and children. 41 survivors are mainly seafarers.

In the case of the submerged MS Estonia under the Baltic Sea in 1994, the evacuation of passengers into lifeboats became more difficult because of the panic at the time so there was no preference for women and children. you

Consequently, 852 people died due to being trapped inside the ship. 137 people survived.

The study also pointed out that since the First World War, the gender gap in mortality because of shipwreck disaster has been narrowed. In modern society, women are given priority.