The cries of gender equality are loud, and we hear that men ‘oppress’ women. Sociologist Sylvia Walby said the patriarchy was “a system of social structures and practices in which men dominate, oppress, and exploit women.” . But when it comes to the patriarchy in matters of life and death, it’s most noticeably absent when you’d think it would be most pervasive.
At approximately 11.40 p.m. at night, the Titanic struck an iceberg that was spotted only moments before impact. When the Titanic was sinking and the edict was given that women and children board lifeboats first, although the order of women and children first was given, you might be led to assume that the white, oppressive men would have overturned this to suit their own self-interested survival.
Indeed, the tragic sinking of the Titanic in the North Atlantic Ocean in 1912 claimed over 1,500 lives.
One of the would be survivors was the co-founder of Macy’s, Isidor Strauss. Being a wealthy businessman, among many onboard the Titanic, he should have opted to save himself. But upon being recognised as the owner of Macy’s Isidor Strauss was offered a place on a lifeboat. You would think that that’s exactly what he would have done without question.
But it’s not
According to eyewitnesses , when an officer prompted Isidor Strauss to get onto the lifeboat, he responded, “No, I will not get on the lifeboat until I see that every woman and child has a chance to escape.”
The same account was proposed by another eyewitness. Archibold Gracie wrote in his book, Truth about the Titanic, “When it was agreed that Strauss, being an older man, should get on the lifeboat, according to Gracie, he replied. “‘No’, he said, ‘I do not wish any distinction in my favour that is not granted to the others.”
The captain of the Titanic ordered that women and children board the lifeboats first. While 53% of women survived the Titanic disaster, only 20% of men survived.
So why didn’t the disembarkation of a sinking ship devolve into ‘every man for himself’, among the wealthy elites onboard?
Because most men are concerned with the wellbeing, survival, and safety of women before their own, this is an ideal that men throughout the history of maritime sinkings have aspired to.
The same ‘oppressive’ patriarchy is the one that surmised the concept of masculine decency during maritime disasters. On 26th Feburary 1852, HMAS Birkenhead crashed into rocks on the outskirts of Cape Town, South Africa. The crew consisted of soldiers, sailors, women, and children. The sinking of the Birkenhead drew more attention to who should be prioritised in emergency evacuations.
While the Birkenhead drill—the evacuation of women and children has been documented in several ship sinking tragedies, it is not an official element of maritime law. Yet, we should not forget that the same ‘patriarchy’ that ‘oppresses women’ is the same one that, amidst the chaos of mortal danger, favours saving women and children first.
Why do the eternal cries for gender equality apply to things like pay gaps when the cries of oppression ignore that women and children’s lives are prioritised above men’s within that same patriarchy?
