Gendercide is the mass killing of people based on gender. Feminicide is the killing of female infants or fetuses in cultures where males are preferred, while androcide occurs in the context of warfare. Gendercide against women dates back to ancient times, with modern forms including femicide and honor killings. Gendercide against men continues to occur primarily in the context of war or to financially weaken a society. The phenomenon of missing women in Asia is a widely recognized example of gendercide in modern times.
Gendercide refers to the killing of a mass group of people based on gender. The most common form against females, called feminicide, is the killing of female girls or the abortion of female fetuses in cultures where male children are preferred. The most common form against males, called androcide, occurs in the context of warfare. Genocide against men is most commonly practiced as a means of weakening the fighting ability of an oppressed people or to weaken an enemy before battle.
The term gendercide was first used by Mary Anne Warren in her 1985 book Gendercide: The Implications of Sex Selection. In the book, she compares gender-based mass murder to genocide, which is defined as the deliberate and systematic killing of a racial or cultural group of people. Warren’s book focuses on gendercide against women, citing witch hunts and other mass murders of women throughout history as examples.
Author Carol Orlock probably introduced the term femicide in 1974. In addition to the ongoing killing of little girls and the abortion of female fetuses, modern forms of femicide can include legally sanctioned death sentences for wives accused of adultery, the death of women and girls caused by neglect and abuse, and the murders of women in the so-called crime of shame. Shame or honor killings are acceptable, and even legal, in some cultures and lead to the murder of women or girls because of perceived sexual misconduct because they were victims of rape or other sexual assault or because they somehow dishonored their families.
Like the gendercide against women, the gender-based mass killing of men dates back to ancient times. Poseidon leads a massacre against males in mythology. There are accounts throughout the Bible. In modern times, gendercide against men continues to occur primarily in the context of war or to financially weaken a society because men continue to be primarily responsible for financially supporting the family in many parts of the world.
The most widely recognized example of gendercide in modern times has resulted in the phenomenon of missing women in Asia, with the ratio of women to men significantly different than one would expect. Without gender selective killing, a society generally has slightly more females than males. By comparison, there are about 10% fewer women than men in many parts of Asia. Some studies find that in 2011, there were up to 100 million women in Asia who were “missing”.
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