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In the months after the disaster, women pressing for the right to vote were ridiculed and told to remember the bastion of male sacrifice that was the Titanic.

Since the days of medieval knights, chivalry has persisted in literature and lore as an ideal — a goal of gallantry, pure morals, self-sacrifice, and fighting for what is good. In the century since the Titanic, its definition has dramatically changed to mean little more than a man opening a door for a woman, pulling out her chair, rising when she gets up to leave the table.

Has true chivalry died in a more or less equal society that will soon see women as the primary breadwinners? Like the suffragettes, are we glad to say goodbye and good riddance to an ideal that has been pegged as chauvinistic and out of touch? Or are we nostalgic for that gentlemanly virtue, longing for gallantry in a world that’s seemingly devoid of heroes?

“The Titanic is a milestone for the concept of chivalry, for that notion of women and children first, of the people who are, in its broadest sense, strong in society looking out for the folks who are weak and have trouble caring for themselves and putting them first,” said Scott Farrell, director of the Chivalry Today Education Program in San Diego, Ca. The program teaches young people about universal standards of ethical behaviour through explorations of medieval history.

For better or worse, women and children were at a disadvantage in 1912, he said, and men were seen to be responsible for their care. An event like the Titanic disaster put those notions of chivalry to the test even then.