Social Class and Life Chances as Seen Through Survivor Rates on the Titanic

We have just eclipsed the 100 year anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic – an incredibly horrific tragedy that resulted in the deaths approximately 1,500 individuals. Astonishingly, this accounted for over two-thirds of the individuals onboard. This from the ship that was dubbed “unsinkable” and was so confident in its invincibility that its lifeboat capacity could accommodate only about half of the individuals on the ship (they decided that they didn’t want the “extra lifeboats” to ruin the aesthetic beauty of the ship’s decks). In short, the Titanic was not well-equipped for a possible tragedy, which ensured that a great deal of individuals were to be doomed when tragedy did strike. While this means that most of the individuals wouldn’t have survived (which the survival numbers verify), it does not mean that everyone on the ship had an equal chance at surviving. In fact, quite the opposite was true.

This real-life occurrence can be a useful starting point for instructors trying to introduce the concept of social stratification (inspired by David M. Newman’s Exploring the Architecture of Everyday Life textbook). The Titanic represents a very clear-cut example where social class divisions provided different opportunities to individuals occupying different classes (you can use “life chances” quite literally in this instance). An individual’s odds of survival were greatly shaped by his/her structural location aboard the ship (i.e. your social class, gender, and age).

Here is an interesting chart illustrating the survivor rates by gender and class: