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Men are expendable; women and children are not. A tribe or a nation can lose a high percentage of its men and still pick up the pieces and go on: as long as the women and children are saved. But if you fail to save the women and children, you've had it, you're done, you're through! You join Tyrannosaurus Rex, one more breed that bilged its final test.

Robert A. Heinlein#162

SocietySurvivalGenderDemographicsProtection

About this quote

What does it mean?
Survival of a group depends on protecting women and children, not men. If women and children are not saved, the group cannot continue.
In plain terms
Protect women and children to ensure survival. Men are replaceable but women and children are not.
What can you take from it?
Prioritize protecting women and children for group survival.

Where it applies

  • crisis management
  • family planning
  • warfare

Putting it to work

  • protect vulnerable groups
  • prioritize women children
  • plan for continuity

Questions to consider

  • Who should be protected first?
  • Is gender relevant to survival?

Another view

Men also contribute uniquely to survival.

More from Robert A. Heinlein

  1. Many short-sighted fools think that going to the Moon was just a stunt. But the astronauts knew the meaning of what they were doing, as is shown by Neil Armstr…

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  2. I said that 'Patriotism' is a way of saying 'Women and children first.' And that no one can force a man to feel this way. Instead he must embrace it freely. I …

    Permalink to quote #163
  3. Behaving on a still higher moral level were the astronauts who went to the Moon, for their actions tend toward the survival of the entire race of mankind.

    Permalink to quote #160

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