The male hijacker was shot and killed by Israeli air marshals. I believe the woman (Leila Khaled) was knocked unconscious when her head hit the ceiling and so they were able to take her alive. Considering the hijackers had (or claimed to have) a bomb and had threatened to blow up the airplane and kill everyone on board, I doubt the AMs would have shown such restraint had she gotten to her feet as the male hijacker allegedly did.

I doubt that chivalry had anything to do with it, especially after one of the El Al flight attendants had been shot 12 times.

El Al may be a royal pain to fly on (or so I'm told; I've never been to the ME myself), but IMO their most effective security measures are the ones the passengers don't see, or necessarily even know about. (For another example, they refuse to comment on whether their pilots are armed; if I'm not mistaken, George Bush has stated very clearly that pilots on US airlines are not armed and will never be armed as long as he is President. How is this supposed to improve security?)