Women and children first
（重定向自Birkenhead drill）
![Thomas Hemy's famous painting (circa 1892) of soldiers standing fast on HMS Birkenhead while the women and children head off in a lifeboat in the background](/Images/godic/202412/24/Wreck_of_the_Birkenhead5003.jpg")
![Novelist William Douglas O'Connor](/Images/godic/202412/24/WilliamDouglasOConnor_byRitz_and_Hastings5003.jpg")
![RMS Titanic survivors aboard a collapsible lifeboat](/Images/godic/202412/24/Titanic-lifeboat5003.gif")
"Women and children first" (or to a lesser extent, the Birkenhead Drill) is a code of conduct whereby the lives of women and children are to be saved first in a life-threatening situation (typically abandoning ship, when survival resources such as lifeboats were limited).