Every man for himself: Gender, Norms and Survival in Maritime Disasters
by Mikael Elinder and Oscar Erixson*
Editor's Note: The following paragraphs are taken from the Working Paper. We have eliminated specific scholarly references. Papers in the Working Paper Series are published on internet in PDF formats. http://www.nek.uu.se/Pdf/wp20128.pdf
Abstract
Since the sinking of the Titanic, there has been a widespread belief that the social norm of ‘women and children first’ gives women a survival advantage over men in maritime disasters, and that captains and crew give priority to passengers. We analyze a database of 18 maritime disasters spanning three centuries, covering the fate of over 15,000 individuals of more than 30 nationalities. Our results provide a new picture of maritime disasters. Women have a distinct survival disadvantage compared to men. Captains and crew survive at a significantly higher rate than passengers. We also find that the captain has the power to enforce normative behavior, that the gender gap in survival rates has declined, that women have a larger disadvantage in British shipwrecks, and that there seems to be no association between duration of a disaster and the impact of social norms.
Taken together, our findings show that behavior in life-and-death situation is best captured by the expression ‘Every man for himself.'
Discussion
Our results provide new insights about human behavior in life-and-death situations.
By investigating a new and much larger sample of maritime disasters than has previously
been done, we show that women have a substantially lower survival rate than men. That
women fare worse than men has been documented also for natural disasters. We also find that crew members have a higher survival rate than passengers and that only 7 out of 16 captains went down with their ship. Children appear to have the lowest survival rate.
Moreover, we shed light on some common perceptions of how situational and cultural conditions affect the survival of women. Most notably, we find that it seems as if it is the policy of the captain, rather than the moral sentiments of men, that determines if women are given preferential treatment in shipwrecks. This suggests an important role for leaders in disasters. Preferences of leaders seem to have affected survival patterns also in the evacuations of civilians during the Balkan Wars.
Moreover, we find that the gender gap in survival rates has decreased since WWI. This
supports previous findings that higher status of women in society improves their relative
survival rates in disasters. We also show that women fare worse, rather than better, in maritime disasters involving British ships. This contrasts with the notion of British men being more gallant than men of other nationalities. Finally, in contrast to previous studies, we find no association between duration of the disaster and the influence of social norms.
Based on our analysis, it becomes evident that the sinking of the Titanic was exceptional in many ways and that what happened on the Titanic seems to have spurred misconceptions about human behavior in disasters.
Download the entire report from http://www.nek.uu.se or from S-WoPEC http://swopec.hhs.se/uunewp/
Both authors are associated with the Uppsala Center for Fiscal Studies, Department of Economics, Uppsala, Sweden. Elinder is also associated with the Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN), Stockholm University
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