An Etiquette Question That May Interest Only Me

Around here, men typically wait for women to board an elevator before they get on, regardless of who was waiting for it first. The reasoning behind this, I suppose, is "ladies first." Is this correct etiquette? Miss Manners has pointed out that the ladies-first policy is not always the most polite one. For example, when accompanying a woman through a circular door, a man goes first so he can push. Likewise, when a man and a woman are descending a flight of stairs too narrow for them to walk abreast, the man should go first so that the woman will fall on him if she accidentally falls. In the same vein, the ranking officer present would always board a boat last and get off first because an open boat was dangerous, wet, and uncomfortable; and it was a privilege of rank to endure that for as short a time as possible. So is an elevator the modern-day equivalent of an open boat in the Age of Sail? Well, probably not. But I have to think that men preceding women into one may be more polite than allowing women to go first. Of course, I doubt that I'm going to buck convention any time soon.