Women and children was a myth for the movie. Men fought to get on those boats no grand display of chivalry occurred. Just romanticism and men rewriting their misdeeds in history as usual.
Actually, the movie was accurate in this regard. The captain and officers on the Titanic did issue an order for women and children first but they did allow men onto lifeboats when no willing women were in the vicinity. James Cameron of course embellished the unnecessary class warfare drama to the mix. And although there is a well-known legend that Captain Smith said “be British, boys, be British” before he died at sea, his actual last known words were, “Well boys, do your best for the women and children, and look out for yourselves.”
You are probably confusing this with a gender research study that stated women had a less likely survival rating than men in ship disasters and that the crew have a higher survival rating. The study of course is trying to disprove that chivalry at sea is a myth using numbers exclusively without any context or details. Fair enough, but the “Birkenhead Drill”, as sometimes referred regarding another famous ship disaster where it was also applied, is so ingrained in the psyche of western culture that it is considered the norm in evacuation situations outside of standard organized ship procedures.
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