Originally Posted By: Susan

The men: "Having a family was also a factor in men’s survival; all the adult males who survived the entrapment were fathers, and all the bachelors (single men 21 and over) died." It may have been a combination of the focus of surviving for the family, and that focus 'encouraging' them not to go out and do something pointless or dangerous.

I would first look at what was physically required for survival. It may be that it was more likely that two (or more) people could do the work needed for that group to survive, but that one person had a hard time doing all the work needed for that one person to survive.

(i.e., you may need to have four hands for a task or especially be in two places at once - hunting and protecting the camp - difficult for bachelors)

There may also have been a subtle prejudice against men who were as old as 21 yet not married - bachelors would not have gotten much assistance from families barely able to survive themselves.

PS. The issue of men or women better at this or that didn't matter. Roles were dictated by the requirements of pregnancy in women, and every division of labor results from that. Gender roles etc were not abstractions to people in that era but supremely important matters of survival. Straying far from the women-at-home men-hunt model tended to win the entire family a Darwin award.