Should women refugees and asylum seekers be given preference over men?

Reading about the 18 year old woman Rahaf Alqunun being given asylum in Canada after having fled her family in Saudi Arabia, I’m just wondering if women should be offered preferential treatment when it comes to seeking asylum.

When one looks at the refugees coming to the UK from Europe, it’s clear most of them are young men. I have nothing against them, good luck to them, if I had been born in a country like theirs it’s quite likely I’d be one of them. But it seems women are more likely to be persecuted, more likely to have their rights denied, and less likely to be able to make the journey.

Maybe it’s just some sense of chivalry or something along the lines of ‘Women and Children First’ but it seems to me the UK could do worse than to be a refuge for persecuted women and girls. I don’t know wether it would be ‘legal’ to prefer women over men in this way, but seeing as men are generally ‘preferred’ over women in virtually all aspects of life, in every country on Earth, it would be a decent thing to do.

Maybe if we do ever leave the EU and are able to elect a government that can think creatively and humanely and compassionately we could have such a system in place.

Just my thoughts.