Women and Children first

Question

Where does this saying come from and exactly why is it the case?

Is it cause women are the reproducers and children...well...haven't lived very long??

Answer 1

It began as a seafaring command that women and children be the first to board the lifeboats when a ship is going to be abandoned.

HMS Birkenhead sank off the coast of South Africa on 26th February 1852. This incident is widely believed to be the origin of the phrase women and children first. The ship was carrying hundreds of British troops and about 26 women and children. When the ship foundered the soldiers' commander told them to stand fast and allow the women and children to make use of the few lifeboats. All of the women & children survived, but many of the soldiers did not.  The women and children first "policy" was later called the 'Birkenhead Drill' and was celebrated in verse by Rudyard Kipling in his moral boosting work Soldier an’ Sailor Too:

To take your chance in the thick of a rush, with firing all about,

Is nothing so bad when you've cover to 'and, an' leave an' likin’ to shout;

But to stand an’ be still to the Birken’ead drill is a d**n tough bullet to chew,

An’ they done it, the Jollies - 'Er Majesty’s Jollies - soldier an' sailor too!

Their work was done when it 'adn’t begun; they was younger nor me an' you;

Their choice it was plain between drownin' in 'eaps an' bein' mopped by the s***w,

So they stood an' was still to the Birken'ead drill, soldier an' sailor too!  by Rudyard Kipling

While it does not express the specific reason why, it is considered Christian heroism for men to save women & children first.  The reasons you state make sense.