Coraggio Fuggiamo

It's been a hundred years since we've heard the words "women and children first", but this week, thanks to the now infamous Captain Schettino, those very words hit the headlines once again.

As I watched the surreal footage and heard the dead toll climbing, I couldn't harness an iota of sympathy for the Captain. I mean seriously, who crashes a ship and then abandons it before his 4,200 passengers have been evacuated?

In a recorded phone call between an Italian coast guard officer and Captain Francesco Schettino, we hear the Captain making weak excuses not to return to the ship and help evacuate the passengers. Shameful indeed; he deserves every bit of humiliation that will haunt him for the rest of his life.

We also hear the coast guard somewhat losing his wits and shouting down the line telling the Captain 'You need to tell me if there are children, women or people in need of assistance. And tell me the exact number of each of these categories. Is that clear?"

According to a report written by A.N Wilson of the Daily Mail, when the ship started tilting, people panicked, and in the chaos, some men refused to put women first. According to various eye witnesses they pushed and shoved to save themselves, as did some of the crew members who blatantly ignored passengers and reportedly rammed their way past mothers and pregnant women to get into lifeboats.

Now maybe I'm crazy like that, but I can't for the life of me find one good reason why in such situations, able-bodied women should go before able-bodied men. I understand why children and people in need of special assistance should be given priority, but when it comes to women and men I have a hard time finding a logical justification to prioritize my own gender.

Is it about chivalry? Is it because men are generally physically stronger than women and thus more likely to survive harsh conditions? We all know which gender outlives the other and who has to withstand childbirth.

Is it because women are more important to the world because of how procreation works?

Or is it because children are better off with women rather than men?

Perhaps it is because women and children are still classified together – an unspoken thought process that keeps sending us women back to the age old problem of not being taken seriously.

Clearly the situation was different a hundred years ago, and it's about time that we fast forward boat protocols to the present. At the time of the Titanic there weren't enough lifeboats for everyone, so those who went first had a much bigger chance of survival. But even at that time, the whole 'women first' protocol jarred with women's equality rights and influenced the debate for women's votes, with some claiming that women should choose between having "boats or votes."

So, a hundred years later, why don't boat evacuations follow the same protocol of airlines? Why don't they simply prioritize those who require assistance and young children? Of course I write this whilst secretly hoping not to ever find myself on a sinking ship and having to eat my own words, but that aside, and in the safety of having my feet on terra ferma, I can't help but question why a man's life is considered more expendable than that of a woman? Why not live in a more egalitarian world in which people's lives are saved regardless of gender?