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Femicide or feminicide is a hate crime which is broadly defined as "the intentional killing of women or girls because they are female," but definitions of it vary depending on cultural context. In 1976, the feminist author
Diana E. H. Russell Diana E. H. Russell (6 November 1938 – 28 July 2020) was a feminist writer and activist. Born and raised in Cape Town, South Africa, she moved to England in 1957, and then to the United States in 1961. For the past 45 years she was engag ...
first defined the term as "the killing of females by males because they are female." Others broaden the meaning of the term by including the killing of females by females. In many
Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...
n countries, where
organized crime Organized crime (or organised crime) is a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally tho ...
is a prevalent issue, the term femicide is used in reference to the violent killings of women and girls which are frequently perpetrated by
gang A gang is a social group, group or secret society, society of associates, friends or members of a family with a defined leadership and internal organization that identifies with or claims control over Territory (animal), territory in a communi ...
members, a crime which is primarily committed in order to stoke fear and compliance among
civilian Civilians under international humanitarian law are "persons who are not members of the armed forces" and they are not " combatants if they carry arms openly and respect the laws and customs of war". It is slightly different from a non-combatan ...
s. Opponents argue that since over 80% of all murder victims are men, the term places too much emphasis on the murder of females. However, a partner is responsible in almost 40% of homicides involving a female victim, compared with the 6% of homicides involving a male victim. In addition, femicide may be underreported. An alternative term,
gendercide Gendercide is the systematic killing of members of a specific gender. The term is related to the general concepts of assault and murder against victims due to their gender, with violence against women and men being problems dealt with by human ...
, is considered more inclusive. However, some feminists argue that that term perpetuates the
taboo A taboo or tabu is a social group's ban, prohibition, or avoidance of something (usually an utterance or behavior) based on the group's sense that it is excessively repulsive, sacred, or allowed only for certain persons.''Encyclopædia Britannic ...
of the murder of females, and enables the continual dominance of male structures in society. Feminists also argue that the causes of femicide are often different than those for
androcide Androcide refers to the systematic killing of men, boys, or males in general. Worldwide, males constitute 79% of non-conflict homicides and the majority of direct conflict deaths. Lexicology ''Androcide'' is a coordinate term of femicide and a ...
. Whereas androcide is often linked to street violence, much femicide involves domestic violence and forced abortions.


History


Development of the term

The term ''femicide'' was first used in England in 1801 to signify "the killing of a woman". In 1848, the term was published in Wharton's Law Lexicon.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', 2nd ed. (1989) p. 285 Another term used is ''feminicide'', from the Latin ''femina'', meaning "female". The current usage emerged with the 1970s feminist movements, which aimed to raise feminine consciousness and resistance against gender oppression.Josie Kaye, Femicide, Online Encyclopedia of Mass Violence
nline ISSN 1961-9898, published 3 November 2007, accessed 18 March 2013.
The term was also used by radical feminists to call attention to violence against women. American author Carol Orlock is widely credited with initiating this usage of the term in her unpublished anthology on femicide. Diana Russell publicized the term at the Crimes Against Women Tribunal in 1976 at the first International Tribunal on Crimes against Women in Belgium.Russell, Diana. "Femicide". Crimes Against Women: Proceedings of the International Tribunal. Ed. Diana Russell and Nicole Van de Ven.
''www.dianarussell.com'', Berkeley, California: Russell Publications, 1990. 104-108. Web. 18 March 2013.
She wrote: "We must realize that a lot of homicide is femicide. We must recognize the sexual politics of murder. From the burning of witches in the past, to the more recent widespread custom of female infanticide in many societies, to the killing of women for 'honor,' we realize that femicide has been going on a long time. But since it involves mere females, there was no name for it until Carol Orlock invented the word 'femicide. Until recently, femicide was invisible in much of the scientific literature. Intimate femicide can be identified as such by using the "severity of violence, such as access to and threats with firearms, forced sex, threats to kill, and strangulation" to determine whether a case can be considered an act of femicide or not. The definition of femicide also relies on "inequalities in gender 'in terms of education, economic level, and employment'".


Contemporary definition by feminists

Feminist author Diana Russell narrows the definition of femicide to "the killing of females by males because they are female". Russell emphasizes that males commit femicide with sexist motives. She replaces "woman" with "female" to show that femicide can occur to girls and infants as well.Russell, Diana E.H. and Harmes, Roberta A, (Eds.), Femicide in Global Perspective New York: Teachers College Press, 2001, Ch. 2, p. 13-14 Russell believes her definition of femicide applies to all forms of sexist killing, whether motivated by
misogyny Misogyny () is hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against women. It is a form of sexism that is used to keep women at a lower social status than men, thus maintaining the societal roles of patriarchy. Misogyny has been widely practiced ...
(the hatred of females), a sense of superiority over females, sexual pleasure, or the assumption of ownership over women. Russell says: "Femicide is on the extreme end of a continuum of antifemale terror that includes a wide variety of verbal and physical abuse, such as
rape Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ...
, torture,
sexual slavery Sexual slavery and sexual exploitation is an attachment of any ownership right over one or more people with the intent of coercing or otherwise forcing them to engage in sexual activities. This includes forced labor, reducing a person to a s ...
(particularly in prostitution), incestuous and extrafamilial child sexual abuse, physical and emotional battery, sexual harassment (on the phone, in the streets, at the office, and in the classroom), genital mutilation (clitoridectomies, excision, infibulations), unnecessary gynecological operations (gratuitous hysterectomies), forced
heterosexuality Heterosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction or sexual behavior between people of the opposite sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, heterosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" ...
, forced sterilization, forced motherhood (by criminalizing contraception and abortion), psychosurgery, denial of food to women in some cultures, cosmetic surgery, and other mutilations in the name of beautification. Whenever these forms of terrorism result in death, they become femicides."Russell, Diana E.H. "The Origin and the Importance of the Term Femicide"
Dec 2011 ''www.dianarussell.com'', Accessed Mar 2013.
She includes covert killings of women as well, such as the mass murder of female babies due to male preference in cultures such as India and China, as well as deaths related to the failure of social institutions, such as the criminalization of
abortion Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pregn ...
or the prevalence of female genital mutilation.


Other definitions

Diana Russell's definition is not accepted by all scholars. Jacquelyn Campbell and Carol Runyan use "femicide" to reference "all killings of women, regardless of motive or perpetrator status" They argue that motive cannot always be determined, and so must be removed from the qualification for femicide to gather data. Feminists Desmond Ellis and Walter Dekesedery take a different approach, viewing the definition of femicide as "the intentional killing of females by males".Ellis, Desmond and Walter Dekesedery. (1996). The wrong stuff: An introduction to the sociological study of deviance. Scaborough, Ontario: Allyn and Bacon. They require that femicide be intentional, unlike the inclusion of covert femicide in Diana Russell's definition. Femicides are also identified "as 'slip-ups' in a power struggle in which men strive to control women and deprive them of their liberty and women struggle for autonomy". Most of these definitions imply that the perpetrator is a man. Still, South Asian feminists differ, stating that femicide is "the intentional killing of females by men, and of females by other females in the interests of men". Examples include neglect of female children in preference of males as well as
dowry A dowry is a payment, such as property or money, paid by the bride's family to the groom or his family at the time of marriage. Dowry contrasts with the related concepts of bride price and dower. While bride price or bride service is a payment ...
-related murder, where female in-laws kill women due to dowry disputes. Moreover, COST Action 1206 provides definitions of femicide. These definitions distinguish femicide from non-gendered descriptions of murder and homicide. Instead, femicide exemplifies that women are killed for different reasons and motives from those associated with typical descriptions of murder.Radford, Jill, and Diana E. H. Russell. Femicide: The Politics of Woman Killing. New York: Twayne, 1992. Print. Globally, femicide has seldom been investigated separately from homicide, and the goal of many of these authors is to make femicide a separate category. In 2013, COST set up Action IS-1206 entitled "Femicide across Europe".Weil, S. 2015, "Combatting femicide in multiple ways: the COST Action IS1206 on Femicide across Europe". In: Filip A and Platzer M (eds) Femicide: Targeting Women in Conflict 3. Vienna: ACUNS, pp.139-141
Link
Weil, S. 2015 "Femicide across Europe". In: Dimitrijevic, M., Filip, A and Platzer M (eds) Femicide: Taking Action against Gender-Related Killing of Women and Girls 4. Vienna: ACUNS, pp.118-121
Link
/ref>


Causes

Defined by Diana Russell, femicide includes intimate partner femicide, lesbicide, racial femicide, serial femicide, mass femicide,
honor killing An honor killing (American English), honour killing (Commonwealth English), or shame killing is the murder of an individual, either an outsider or a member of a family, by someone seeking to protect what they see as the dignity and honor of ...
related femicide,
dowry A dowry is a payment, such as property or money, paid by the bride's family to the groom or his family at the time of marriage. Dowry contrasts with the related concepts of bride price and dower. While bride price or bride service is a payment ...
and more. Any act of sexual terrorism that results in death is considered femicide. Covert femicide also takes form in the criminalization of
abortion Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pregn ...
leading to death of the mother, intentional spread of
HIV/AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ...
, or death as a result of
female genital mutilation Female genital mutilation (FGM), also known as female genital cutting, female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and female circumcision, is the ritual cutting or removal of some or all of the external female genitalia. The practice is found ...
. The most widespread form of femicide in the world is that committed by an intimate partner of a female. This accounts for at least 35% of all murders of women globally.WHO, Pan American Health Organization. Femicide: Understanding and Addressing Violence against Women.
Publication no. WHO/RHR/12.38. N.p.: n.p., 2012.
Different areas of the world experience femicide varyingly, i.e., the Middle East and South Asia have higher rates of
honor killing An honor killing (American English), honour killing (Commonwealth English), or shame killing is the murder of an individual, either an outsider or a member of a family, by someone seeking to protect what they see as the dignity and honor of ...
: the murder of women by their family, due to an actual or assumed sexual or behavioral transgression, such as
adultery Adultery (from Latin ''adulterium'') is extramarital sex that is considered objectionable on social, religious, moral, or legal grounds. Although the sexual activities that constitute adultery vary, as well as the social, religious, and leg ...
, sexual intercourse, or even having been raped.


Among intimate partners

Intimate partner femicide, sometimes called intimate femicide, or romantic femicide, refers to "the killing of a woman by her intimate partner or her former intimate partner". These can include former or current boyfriends, husbands, and
common-law In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omnipres ...
husbands. 5-8% of all murders committed by male perpetrators are cases of intimate partner homicide.Monckton, Smith Jane. Murder, Gender and the Media: Narratives of Dangerous Love. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. Print. For example, an examination from media and internet sources of every single murder of an elderly woman committed between 2006 and 2015 revealed that all the cases of female
geronticide Senicide, or geronticide, is the killing of the elderly, or their abandonment to death. Philosophical views Pythagorean doctrine held that all creatures were being punished by the gods who imprisoned the creatures' souls in a body. Thus, any ...
in Israel were exclusively intimate partner femicides, and perpetrated in the domestic arena. Acts of
incest Incest ( ) is human sexual activity between family members or close relatives. This typically includes sexual activity between people in consanguinity (blood relations), and sometimes those related by affinity ( marriage or stepfamily), ado ...
, sexual harassment,
rape Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ...
, battering, and other forms of violence are also found to escalate over time within a familial relationship, possibly resulting in femicide. The prevalence of intimate partner femicide is said to dispel the myth that women have the most to fear from strangers, and instead are most often killed within the private sphere of the home. Argued by Jacquelyn Campbell, a common motive that causes men to kill their intimate partners is jealousy, a result of male efforts to control and possess women to display ownership and reinforce
patriarchy Patriarchy is a social system in which positions of dominance and privilege are primarily held by men. It is used, both as a technical anthropological term for families or clans controlled by the father or eldest male or group of males a ...
. A "feminist reconceptualization" of intimate partner violence viewed as "a crime against humanity" claims a structural system is to blame for the murder of women rather than violent individuals. It is cross-cultural on a mass scale, and is suggested to be considered as a human rights violation by the Women's Studies International Forum. While authors acknowledge "crimes are committed by individuals and not by abstract entities", the prevalence of domestic violence constitutes it as an epidemic. Contemporary feminists believe that re-framing intimate partner violence as a state crime and a
crime against humanity Crimes against humanity are widespread or systemic acts committed by or on behalf of a ''de facto'' authority, usually a state, that grossly violate human rights. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity do not have to take place within the ...
will have a "transformative effect" on the reduction of violence against women committed by their significant others, as it is already recognized as a violation of the
international human rights law International human rights law (IHRL) is the body of international law designed to promote human rights on social, regional, and domestic levels. As a form of international law, international human rights law are primarily made up of treaties, a ...
. Intimate partner violence by women on men is rare, and tends to be self-defense. Some controversial research finds that most intimate partner violence is bidirectional, or female upon male, but most studies find that, where men are the victims of domestic violence, their abusers tend to be male. Risk factors that increase the likelihood of intimate partner femicide include: when a male has previously threatened to commit
suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and ...
or kill the woman if she cheats on him or leaves him, when there is elevated alcohol or drug abuse by either partner, or when a male attempts to control a woman's freedom. Two-fifths of intimate partner femicide is related to the use of intoxicants. Other factors commonly associated with male perpetrators of femicide include gun ownership, forcing sexual intercourse, and
unemployment Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for work during the refer ...
. Women's risk factors include: if they are
pregnant Pregnancy is the time during which one or more offspring develops ( gestates) inside a woman's uterus (womb). A multiple pregnancy involves more than one offspring, such as with twins. Pregnancy usually occurs by sexual intercourse, but ...
, have faced prior abuse from their partner, are estranged from their partner, or are attempting to leave a relationship, their likelihood of femicide increases. The presence of
firearms A firearm is any type of gun designed to be readily carried and used by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see Legal definitions). The first firearms originated in 10th-century China, when bamboo tubes ...
within a home is a large factor in intimate partner femicide, and worldwide, firearms are used in one-third of all femicides.Nowak, Matthias. Femicide: A Global Problem.
''www.smallarmssurvey.org'', Geneva, Switzerland: Small Arms Survey, Feb. 2012. PDF.
As often reported in the public eye, male perpetrators are seen as "being driven" to commit femicide, due to a "breakdown in love attributed to the female". In defense trials, the defense of provocation is often used to reduce the time men serve in prison. Conversely, women are not often as successful with using this idea of provocation in their murder trials, and judges are statistically less likely to accept claims of
self-defense Self-defense (self-defence primarily in Commonwealth English) is a countermeasure that involves defending the health and well-being of oneself from harm. The use of the right of self-defense as a legal justification for the use of force ...
, showing biased judging standards. Factors that decrease the risk of intimate partner femicide include a separate domicile for women and other societal factors, such as more
police The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest a ...
, as well as mandated arrest for violation of
restraining order A restraining order or protective order, is an order used by a court to protect a person in a situation involving alleged domestic violence, child abuse, assault, harassment, stalking, or sexual assault. Restraining and personal protection o ...
s related to
intimate partner violence Intimate partner violence (IPV) is domestic violence by a current or former spouse or partner in an intimate relationship against the other spouse or partner. IPV can take a number of forms, including physical, verbal, emotional, economic and se ...
. Karen D. Stout found that there is a correlation between the number of
women's shelter A women's shelter, also known as a women's refuge and battered women's shelter, is a place of temporary protection and support for women escaping domestic violence and intimate partner violence of all forms. The term is also frequently used t ...
s in a state, the number of
rape crisis center Rape crisis centers (RCCs) are community-based organizations affiliated with the anti-rape movement that work to help victims of rape, sexual abuse, and sexual violence. Central to a community's rape response, RCCs provide a number of services, s ...
s, and a lowered rate of femicide. One explanation of this correlation is that implementing these measures has positively affected lowering the femicide rate. Other effective legislation against femicide include legislation that defines civil injunction relief, defines physical abuse as a criminal offense', allows arrest without a warrant, requires data collection and reporting, and provides funds for women's shelters.


Gun violence

There has been an increase in the amount of femicides linked to intimate partner violence. About 67% of the women killed by their partners are killed with a gun. Access to guns therefore plays an important role in this. On average, 70 women are "shot and killed" by their intimate partner every month.


Racially motivated

The Hope Movement defines racist femicide as the racially motivated killing of women by men who are members of a different race. According to Diana Russell and fellow writer Jill Radford, "
Racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...
interacts with
violence against women Violence against women (VAW), also known as gender-based violence and sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), are violent acts primarily or exclusively committed against woman, women or Girl, girls, usually by Man, men or Boy, boys. Such ...
, and shapes both femicide itself, and the ways it is addressed by the local community, the police, the media, and the legal system." Russell, Radford, and many other feminist activists assert that when looking at femicide within the United States specifically, one must consider the politics of both sexism and racism in the murders of black women and the little justice that is often served.Radford, Jill, and Diana E. H. Russell. Femicide: The Politics of Woman Killing. New York: Twayne, 1992. Print. 145 Media coverage can especially exhibit bias when covering the murders of Black versus white women. Jaime Grant writes on the murder of 12 young women in Boston, Massachusetts, and exposes the "racism in media coverage, which virtually ignored these killings initially, and later depicted the victims in racist and sexist stereotypes, such as runaways, drug addicts, or prostitutes." In addition, police response and investigation can often differ based on the victim's race. Engaging in work with Black Feminist Studies, author Manshel claims that the narrative which is formed around domestic violence is traditionally associated with a white, middle class, female victim, leaves victims of different races and social classes to receive unequal care, and it can also lead to more victimization of the woman who is murdered/abused due to "narrative resistance", not aligning with the vulnerability which is typically expected by female victims. Manshel also traces the history of assaults of Black women, and she makes the distinction that "the circumstances" of white victims were "wholly different" from those of "enslaved women" in the 19-20th century, and she proposes that
anti-racist Anti-racism encompasses a range of ideas and political actions which are meant to counter racial prejudice, systemic racism, and the oppression of specific racial groups. Anti-racism is usually structured around conscious efforts and deliberate ...
frameworks about sexual violence should be put into writing.


Sexually motivated (homophobic)

According to Diana Russell and Jill Radford, lesbicide, also known as homophobic femicide, has a long history of legalized murder of lesbians in many different cultural contexts: * Roman civilization: a married woman convicted of engaging in any sexual activity with another woman could be killed by her husband as a "just penalty for her crime". * Medieval Europe: secular and religious doctrine mandated death for lesbianism. "The famous 1260 Code of Orleans in France secularized the prohibition of lesbianism, mandating that for the first two offenses, a woman would 'lose her member'; for the third offense she would be burned." *
Witch-hunt A witch-hunt, or a witch purge, is a search for people who have been labeled witches or a search for evidence of witchcraft. The classical period of witch-hunts in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America took place in the Early Modern peri ...
of the 15th century:
Witchcraft Witchcraft traditionally means the use of magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually women who were believed to have u ...
was linked with
heresy Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, in particular the accepted beliefs of a church or religious organization. The term is usually used in reference to violations of important religi ...
and homosexuality. The phrase ''femina cum feminus'' (woman with woman) was often an accusation in witch trials. Today, lesbianism is no longer a capital crime, but it remains criminalized by many governments, and is condemned by most religions.
Torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts ...
and murder of lesbians occurs in every part of the world, even in "developed" countries. According to Dr. Susan Hawthorne of Victoria University, "domination is exemplified in the punishment of lesbians as outsiders in patriarchal culture" Dr. Hawthorne goes on to elaborate that lesbians are often killed, tortured, or generally denied rights, due to their invisibility in terms of political power and social representation: "When it comes to campaigns on violence against women, lesbians are either left out or included only in a footnote". A case study conducted in 2014 deeply analyzing multiple anti-LGBT cases of violence suggests that crimes like lesbicide can at least, in part, be explained by existing hyper-masculinity theories that observe the " accomplishment of gender". This confirms how scholars have theorized how "constructing masculinity is relevant to bias crime offending". One common occurrence the
sociological Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation and ...
researchers had found was the escalation of violence towards LGBT members when they were met with "unwanted heterosexual advances". The community agrees that violent crimes and homicides are heterogeneous phenomenons.


Corrective rape

According to political scientist and women's studies scholar Susan Hawthorne, corrective rape is a hate crime that constitutes forced sexual activity with a person who is either a woman, gender non-conforming, or identifies as a lesbian. The goal of corrective rape is to "correct" the victim's sexual orientation and make them heterosexual or behave in a more gender-conforming manner. This has led to death in some cases. There are documented cases of corrective rape in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Ecuador, and Thailand.
Eudy Simelane Eudy Simelane (11 March 1977 – 28 April 2008) was a South African footballer who played for the South Africa national team and an LGBT rights activist. She was raped and murdered in her hometown of KwaThema, Springs, Gauteng. Early life Sim ...
was a famous soccer player who played for the South Africa women's national football team and LGBT rights activist; her murder was a highly publicized instance of simultaneous corrective rape and lesbicide in
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring count ...
.


Tendency in serial killings

Serial femicide is defined as "the sexually sadistic killing of women", also called "sexual terrorism". Although over 90% of serial killers are male, not all are male; about 7% are female. Male serial murderers tend to use more brutal methods of killing, such as suffocation and beatings. In contrast, women use poison or less violent measures. In addition, while a large percentage of male serial killers focus on women as their targets, female serial killers are less likely to focus exclusively on males. Some male serial killers focus on males as targets, such as Jeffrey Dahmer and Wayne Williams The ways serial murderers are portrayed in the media reflect the views on femicide and gender in society. Often, murders of prostitutes, low-income women, and women of color by serial killers receive less attention in the media than the killings of younger, prettier, more affluent women, usually married, engaged, or in relationships with much handsome, affluent, younger men their age. According to the FBI's Supplementary Homicide Report, local police reported that about 33,000 homicides of women remain unsolved. Feminists such as Diana Russell and Jane Caputi believe in a link between the rise of serial murders and the advent of
pornography Pornography (often shortened to porn or porno) is the portrayal of sexual subject matter for the exclusive purpose of sexual arousal. Primarily intended for adults,
. Specifically, the advent of films that eroticize violence and murder of women has been correlated to the desires of serial killers. Numerous serial murderers filmed their victims as they violently killed them. However, the link between pornography and serial murders is not proven.


Female infanticide

Female infanticide is the killing of female infants. It is found all over the world regardless of a country's sophistication. A common misconception is that it is only related to abortions, but it also includes "girl-child murders". Female infanticide plays an important role in the imbalance of gender populations. In countries where female infanticide is practiced, the male populations is higher than the female population.


Worldwide

Every year, an average of 66,000 women are violently killed globally, accounting for approximately 17% of all victims of intentional homicides. In 2017, 87,000 women and girls were killed globally. This means that 238 women are killed daily. According to a 2000 report by the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA), approximately 5,000 women are murdered each year in honor killings. The rates of femicide differ depending on the specific country, but of the countries with the top 25 highest femicide rates, 50% are in Latin America, with number one being
El Salvador El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by ...
. Also included in the top 25 are seven European countries, three Asian countries, and one African country,
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring count ...
. In a UN study, 1 in 4 women in the top 25 countries agreed that it was justifiable to be beaten or hit for arguing with their husband, or refusing to have sex with him. Overall, data on femicide worldwide is poor, and often countries do not report gender differences in murder statistics.Alvazzi del Frate, Anna. 2011
"When the Victim Is a Woman"
In Geneva Declaration Secretariat, pp. 113–144.
In addition, reporting data on migrants is particularly scarce.


Africa

The continent varies in the manifestations of femicide depending on the country or region. Rarely Muslim women become a commodity in the fight between two factions and are killed when one faction (dis)approves of the wearing of the prescribed traditional dress. 4 One of the biggest health problems in Africa is the epidemic of
HIV/AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ...
which affects 25.7 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa as of 2017. Whenever AIDS results in the death of a female due to
misogyny Misogyny () is hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against women. It is a form of sexism that is used to keep women at a lower social status than men, thus maintaining the societal roles of patriarchy. Misogyny has been widely practiced ...
or sexist male behavior, it is considered a form of femicide according to Diana Russell's definition of femicide.Russell, Diana EH. "AIDS As Mass Femicide: Focus On South Africa". In D.E.H. Russell and R.A. Harmes (Ed.), ''Femicide In Global Perspective''. New York, NY: Teacher's College Press, 2001, pp.100-114.
Female genital mutilation Female genital mutilation (FGM), also known as female genital cutting, female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and female circumcision, is the ritual cutting or removal of some or all of the external female genitalia. The practice is found ...
is defined by the
World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level o ...
as "the removal of part or all of the external female genitalia and/or injury to the female genetic organs for cultural or other non-therapeutic reasons". Female genital mutilation results in femicide when women and girls die, due to unhygienic practices of FGM that result in infection or death, as well as the increased likelihood of contracting
HIV/AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ...
because of FGM. Cases of femicide have been common in the Middle East and North Africa region. In June 2022 surfaced one such story where a girl, Nayera Ashraf, who refused the advances of a man was stabbed to death by him publicly in broad daylight. The incident sparked widespread outrage amongst social media users about growing cases of femicide, after the video of the stabbing outside Nayera's university went viral online. Whereas, Egyptian preacher and controversial TV presenter Mabrouk Attia, garnered criticism for suggesting women cover and remain veiled when stepping outside to avoid being subjected to such unfortunate incidents. As a result, social media users spurred a campaign demanding Attia's arrest.


Asia


Japan

In Japan,
violence against women Violence against women (VAW), also known as gender-based violence and sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), are violent acts primarily or exclusively committed against woman, women or Girl, girls, usually by Man, men or Boy, boys. Such ...
does not, at first sight, appear to be a big issue, overall homicide rates in the country are among the lowest in the world — below 1 per 100,000 people — and street crime is rare. Harassment is also uncommon: women generally feel safe when going out alone at night. Nevertheless, the jurisdiction has one of the highest rates of female homicide victims in the world, as a percentage of total homicides. According to a report by the
U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC; French: ''Office des Nations unies contre la drogue et le crime'') is a United Nations office that was established in 1997 as the Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention by combining the ...
(UNODC), published in 2014, Japan, together with
Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...
, top the ranking — with women comprising 52.9% of the total homicide victims — followed by
South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
at 52.5%.


India

Rita Banerji Rita Banerji (1967) is an author, photographer and gender activist from India. Her non-fiction book ''Sex and Power: Defining History, Shaping Societies'' was published in 2008. She is the founder of the ''50 Million Missing'' online campaign to ...
, feminist author and founder o
The 50 Million Missing Campaign
to end female
gendercide Gendercide is the systematic killing of members of a specific gender. The term is related to the general concepts of assault and murder against victims due to their gender, with violence against women and men being problems dealt with by human ...
in India, has said that there are also millions of girls and women killed through various forms of femicides that extend across various age groups. In a U.N
Symposium on Femicide
in Vienna on 26 November 2012, she talked about the six most widespread forms of femicide in India. These included
female infanticide Female infanticide is the deliberate killing of newborn female children. In countries with a history of female infanticide, the modern practice of gender-selective abortion is often discussed as a closely related issue. Female infanticide is a m ...
, the killing of girls under six years through starvation and violence, the killing of women due to forced abortions,
honor killing An honor killing (American English), honour killing (Commonwealth English), or shame killing is the murder of an individual, either an outsider or a member of a family, by someone seeking to protect what they see as the dignity and honor of ...
s, dowry murders, and witch lynchings. Many of the femicides in
India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...
are perpetrated against girls.Weil, S. and Mitra, N. 2016f. 'Femicide of Girls in India', Femicide: Taking Action against Gender-Related Killing of Women and Girls 6. Vienna: ACUN
Link
Despite progressive legal reforms in many parts of the region, strong patriarchal values are maintained, and help perpetuate the subordination of women.Manjoo, Rashida. Report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, Rashida Manjoo 2012. 5. Web. 18 March 2013. According to the Special Rapporteur on violence against women for the Human Rights Council, key factors behind gender-motivated killings of women in Asia are the high level of importance placed on women's
chastity Chastity, also known as purity, is a virtue related to temperance. Someone who is ''chaste'' refrains either from sexual activity considered immoral or any sexual activity, according to their state of life. In some contexts, for example when ma ...
and their subordination in the greater society. For example, while the
Penal Code of India The Indian Penal Code (IPC) is the official criminal code of India. It is a comprehensive code intended to cover all substantive aspects of criminal law. The code was drafted on the recommendations of first law commission of India established in ...
now specifically prohibits dowry, the reported number of dowry-related deaths of women has almost doubled from 4,836 to 8,383 over the past twenty years (1990–2009). The code is also criticized for having a low impact on the criminalization of perpetrators, noted in the low conviction rate of ten percent. Suicide is the leading cause of death for
Nepalese women Nepali or Nepalese may refer to : Concerning Nepal * Anything of, from, or related to Nepal * Nepali people, citizens of Nepal * Nepali language, an Indo-Aryan language found in Nepal, the current official national language and a language spoken ...
in the reproductive age group, with causes ranging from domestic abuse, forced marriage, casting out of widows, and lack of property rights. In this context, there is minimal acceptance and respect of young girls and women, and often an absence of family support. This results in a variety of context-specific versions of femicide and gender-based violence in the region: honor killings, acid attacks, witch-hunting, foeticide, and gender-based violence during
caste Caste is a form of social stratification characterised by endogamy, hereditary transmission of a style of life which often includes an occupation, ritual status in a hierarchy, and customary social interaction and exclusion based on cultural ...
and communal conflict. The country has attempted to manage femicide through some policy enactment. India has primarily focused on creating legislation related to population control, resulting in pressures to have a son. Some regions in India have incentivized parents to birth daughters by offering money to families with girls, in order to offset the expenses associated with having a daughter. However, there have been research studies analysing femicide policy, specifically in relation to India, that have found "the criminalization of sex selection has not been successful".


China

Female infanticide was common in traditional China, where natural hardships such as famines reinforced cultural norms favoring sons, and encouraged hard-pressed families to abandon or kill their infant daughters. Furthermore, daughters became liabilities, as gender was also crucial to the system of ancestor worship, in which only sons were allowed to carry out ritual sacrifices. Thus, "if a couple failed to produce a son, its crucial links to the past and future were broken". In present-day China, despite official condemnation and outrage, female infanticide continues. In late 1982, the Chinese press was the first to indicate that female infanticide was being practiced as the final option to circumvent the
one-child policy The term one-child policy () refers to a population planning initiative in China implemented between 1980 and 2015 to curb the country's population growth by restricting many families to a single child. That initiative was part of a much bro ...
. An expert from the
City University of New York The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the public university system of New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven senior colleges, seven community colleges and seven pr ...
, however, disagrees with the tendency to characterize female infanticide as "the unfortunate consequence of Chinese population control and modernization policies". She defines female infanticide as "part of a crime of gender", which she refers to as "social femicide", and relates it to the broader problem of gender inequality in Chinese society.


Turkey

A gender-based discriminatory notion of honor is sometimes the cause of serious cases of health deterioration or mutilation among women in Turkey. According to the ''Report on Custom and Honor Killings'' by the country's General Directorate of Security, 1,028 custom and honor killings were committed between the years of 2003 and 2007. It is important, however, that according to the World Data Bank, femicide rates in Turkey were 0.9 women killed due to violence against women per 100k women. Which ranks it about the same femicide rate as Istanbul-convention ratifiers such as Germany & Austria, but still significantly higher than most of the other ratifiers. Since 2019, Turkeys femicide rate have seen a significant drop of 44.9%. According to the data of the General Directorate of Security covering killings in Turkey until 2007, honor killings happen predominantly in the Southeastern part of the country. The rates of murderers born in Eastern and Southeastern
Anatolia Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The r ...
are much higher than murderers born in other regions. With 24% of the murderers born in Southeastern Anatolia and 21% in Eastern Anatolia, they share the top spot. While in comparison, only 8% of the murderers are born in the
Marmara region The Marmara Region (Turkish: ''Marmara Bölgesi'') is a geographical region of Turkey. Located in northwestern Turkey, it is bordered by Greece and the Aegean Sea to the west, Bulgaria and the Black Sea to the north, the Black Sea Region to the ...
. Even though that region has the highest rate of honor killings, which means that the killings are primarily committed by people born outside that region. The reason behind this is the fact that honor killings are still receiving support in Eastern and Southeastern Anatolia. According to a survey in Diyarbakir, a city in Southeastern Anatolia, 40% of the respondents supported honor killing. In some court cases this has led the court to decide to send the entire family to prison. For example, in 2009, an entire Kurdish family was sent to prison for life, because they were involved in the honor killing of their daughter, who got pregnant after being raped. In 2020, 300 women died as a result of femicide in Turkey, which is 174 (36%) less than the year before It is important to note that the source started differentiating between confirmed femicides and suspicious deaths in 2020, so the more representative numbers to compare are: 474 in 2019 and 471 in 2020, a decrease of about 0,5% . According to the same source, suspicious deaths have been rising for the past years. Totaling the numbers from confirmed and suspicious deaths in 2021 497 have been killed, in 2020 471 have been killed and in 2019 474 have been killed. In March 2021, via presidential decree, the Turkish government made the decision to leave the Istanbul convention, making it the first and only country in the Council of Europe to have withdrawn from any international human rights convention. This has sparked outrage in the population, as according to polls, only 26% of the population voted in favor of leaving. In the past the president has stated, that the women's rights movement is diverting women from their original roles as mothers and wives, while also normalizing tolerance to homosexuality. National women's rights organizations, who had been criticizing lack of implementation of the convention for years, now have concerns about rising femicide rates in Turkey.


South Korea

In South Korea, violence towards women has been increasing.  In 2012, a man named Oh Won-choon killed a women while attempting to sexually assault her while going home. In 2014, while waiting for a bus, a woman was stabbed to death by a drunk man. Then in 2016, a 34-year-old whose surname is Kim randomly murdered a women in her twenties in a Gangnam Station bathroom . Kim stated he murdered the woman  because “women have always ignored me”.   The rise in victimization towards women has made women fearful of crime. In 2019 The South Korean government released the 2019 Domestic Violence Survey Study that found that only 27.6 percent of women over 13 feel society is safe for them. The study also found that women accounted for 98 percent of victims in intimate partner femicide (domestic violence) cases. In 2019 32,000 sex crimes against women were reported, that’s 12,000 more cases than in 2010. All the while domestic violence cases have reached 50,000 in 2019 compared to 6,800 cases in 2011. While these numbers may not be completely accurate; it is estimated that there are more femicide, and intimate partner femicide cases not being reported due to South Korea’s Confucianism influences in society. Confucianism believes women should be subordinate to men and assumes women's status as inferior from men. These values also believe that women have only three roles: Daughter, wife, and mother and have to follow the head of the family which is her father before marriage and husband after marriage. South Korea’s traditional patriarchal culture/values which assigns roles to female members and their strong belief that a woman's place should be with her family no matter what cause women to be wary of reporting violence towards them due to fear of bringing shame to the family or affecting the family’ social status. In a study focusing on the experiences of 14 female victims of intimate partner femicide in getting help with domestic violence found that victims didn't talk to their family or sought them out for support. Only one participant escaped their abusive relationship because their parents saw the bruises and called the police. Victims were scared to talk to their families. They were scared their parents would get angry and sad seeing their daughters get abused. It is also taboo to talk about their romantic relationships with their parents. In the study four victims chose the police as a support to escape their abuser. They decided to call the police when the relationship became a risk for their health. Two out of the four victims shared their negative experience with the police. The police refused to get involved because they thought that what they were experiencing were normal relationship conflicts. These victims saw that current laws in South Korea are inadequate for protecting them from domestic femicide victims. They were deeply frustrated about it and they felt anxious and scared since they felt no one could protect them. The legal system does not favor women suffering from femicide and intimate partner femicide. Victims find it hard to report an aggressive male behavior, domestic partner violence, and violence towards women due to the idea that sexual assault and domestic violence is a matter that should be handled “privately”. In South Korea two legislations that protected women were enacted for the first time in 1997. “Special Action Punishment of Domestic Violence Crimes” legislation was established to punish the perpetrators. This law states if someone is found to be guilty of psychological, mental and physical violence the perpetrator will be fined or face jail time. The “Act on Prevention of Domestic Violence and Protection of Victims” legislation is used to protect the victims by reporting systems, provision of protection facilities and support services for victims.  Even though this law protects victims it is limited since it only protects married couples and does not address couples who are not married and face intimate partner violence. Olivia Shieber a senior program manager of foreign and defense policy studies describes Korean courts as lenient with sex crime punishments.  In 2013 the Korean Supreme court upheld the country’s first spousal rape conviction which is something South Korea was behind when compared to other first world countries and it wasnt until the year 202 when the age of consent was raised from 13 to 16. Additionally, the fact that just 30% of judges and less than 4% of police personnel are women clearly affects how crimes of this sort are handled by the Korean judicial system. Even in cases where prosecutors successfully prosecute a defendant for a sex offense, the offenders are usually given a suspended sentence. Additionally, due to the country's strict legal definitions, it is still challenging to prove rape and other sex crimes in South Korea and some defendents have even exploited South Korea’s tough defamation laws to sue their alleged victims for defamation making victims scared to come forward. Ultimately, women that face intimate partner violence or femicide in Korea are left feel isolated, disenfranchised from the legal system and socially outcast while having to increasingly worry about femicide rates rising.


Australia

In 2019, a recent statistic from the Australian Institute of Criminology indicated that on average, one woman a week is murdered in an act of femicide in Australia.


Europe

In Europe, agencies have funded initiatives on gender and violence but not specifically on femicide. Research is in its infancy and uncoordinated. A COST Action IS1206 has established the first pan-European coalition on femicide with researchers who are already studying the phenomenon nationally to advance research clarity, agree on definitions, improve the efficacy of policies for femicide prevention, and publish guidelines for the use of national policy-makers. EU reports show that additional support has been needed during the period of pandemic lockdown in many countries Available data are limited: Eurostat covers only 20 countries and there are discrepancies in the way in which the data is collected. According to available data in
Western Europe Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's countries and territories vary depending on context. The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the ancient Mediterranean ...
, the average annual rate is 0.4 victims of femicide for every 100,000 women. The worst situations are found in
Montenegro ) , image_map = Europe-Montenegro.svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Podgorica , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , official_languages = ...
, Lithuania, and
Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...
. In most countries, the partner is the most common perpetrator. However, there are exceptions: in Lithuania and
Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and ...
, most femicides are committed by family members. Also, while male victims of homicide have been in a sharp decline in recent years, the number of women murdered in Europe, not necessarily at the hands of a partner or family member, remains constant, with a slight increase from 2013 to 2015. Material was copied from this source, which is available under
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
From 2013 to 2017, 30 European countries joined a COST ( Cooperation on Science and Technology) project called "femicide across Europe. The
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been ...
first enacted COST (Cooperation on Science and Technology), a program known as COST Action. COST Action led to four different femicide research groups: definitions, data collection, cultural issues, and advocacy and prevention. Thirty countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding with COST that promoted international efforts to address femicide and the Action program. The Istanbul Convention was a gathering of multiple independent states who had a common goal of acknowledging and addressing femicide. However, the convention "is not a treaty, and not legally binding for all states", and thus is not an official policy.


France

Depending on the sources, between 122 and 149 women were killed in
France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...
in 2019 by their partners or ex-partners.


Germany

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...
has one of the highest absolute femicide numbers in Europe.


Italy

Statistics of femicide in
Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
are reported by year (1995-2019) by the independent Women NGO .


Spain

Statistics and structure of femicide in
Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' ( Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...
are reported by year (2010-2019).


Switzerland

In Switzerland, a woman is murdered by her male partner an average of every 15 days.


United Kingdom

Interest in reporting and analyzing levels of femicide in the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
has grown in recent years, and several national organizations provide support In 2021, a campaign began in the UK led by ''
The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper Sunday editions, published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group, Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. ...
'' and the Femicide Census to better identify femicide, to improve the knowledge of it, and to encourage improved methods to end it. This included raising awareness of the data produced by the Femicide Census The organisation, led by
Karen Ingala Smith Karen Ingala Smith is CEO of nia, a domestic and sexual violence charity working to end violence against women and girls, based in London, UK. Biography Smith has a BA from University of Kent and a PhD from University of Durham. She is a Dir ...
and Clarrie O'Callaghan, justifies it as bringing data together in this way "significantly improves upon currently available data by providing detailed comparable data about femicides in the UK since 2009, including demographic and social factors and the methods men selected to kill women. By collating femicides, we can see that these killings are not isolated incidents, and many follow repeated patterns." By taking an intersectional approach to the data campaigners, academics and journalists are able to highlight patterns of concern, such as the numbers of older women being killed, those killed by partners and ex-lovers, or those killed during lockdown. On average, in the UK, a woman is killed by a man every three days, or by a current or former partner, every four days. The data is not gathered in Scotland. Data published in 2022 shows that in year ending March 2021, 177 women were murdered in England and Wales( for comparison, 416 men were killed in this period). Where there was a known suspect, 92% of the women were killed by men.


Latin America

Feminists in Latin America have been among the first to adopt the term ''femicide'', referring to the female homicides in Ciudad Juárez,
Mexico Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guate ...
. This term inspired feminists in Latin America to organize anti-femicide groups to challenge this social injustice towards women. The use of the term femicide, and the creation of anti-femicide feminist organizations, spread from Mexico, to many other Latin American countries, like Guatemala. In Latin America, femicide is an issue that occurs in many countries, but most predominantly in Central America, in countries such as
El Salvador El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by ...
and Honduras, and other places, such as
Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
and Mexico. The Latin American region includes 5 of the 12 countries with the highest rate of femicide in the world. According to Julia Estela Monárrez-Fragoso of the Colegio de la Frontera Norte based in Ciudad Juárez, victims are often blamed for being out late at night, or for hanging around "questionable" areas, such as discotecas or nightclubs.Monárrez Fragoso, Julia Estela. 2010. "The Victims of Ciudad Juárez Feminicide: Sexually Fetishised Commodities". In ''Terrorising Women: Feminicide in the Americas''. Durham: Duke University Press. 59-69. Between 2000 and 2010, more than five thousand Guatemalan women and girls were murdered. Guatemala's historical record reveals a long history of acceptance of gendered violence, and the
military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distin ...
,
government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government ...
, and judiciary's role in normalizing misogyny. In a Report on the Violations of Women's Rights in Guatemala by a
United Nations Human Rights Committee The United Nations Human Rights Committee is a treaty body composed of 18 experts, established by a 1966 human rights treaty, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The Committee meets for three four-week sessions per y ...
, the state's failure to enforce laws protecting women from femicide is seen as highly problematic. The report argues that enforcing laws against the murder of women is a low priority of state governments, due to patriarchal beliefs, and assumptions about the role of women in society. Various activists and scholars, such as Monárrez, have argued that connections exist between the femicides and neoliberal policies, namely North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). They believe that the treaty has served to open trade borders, and to increase foreign investment targeted at manufacturing low-cost garments in maquiladoras. Intimate partner femicide is the most common form of femicide, and high violence and crime rates in these countries also contribute to this issue. There is a lack of an organized system to record information and statistical data to support this issue. Machismo, a history of civil wars, and other cultural influences can also contribute to this issue, specifically in Latin America. Torture, mutilation, defacement, sexual assault, and the dumping of bodies is a common trend with femicide. It has been observed that many of the women killed in Ciudad Juárez are young mothers who migrate to this region seeking employment in maquiladoras. They then become easy targets, due to the fact that they are separated from their family, and are typically alone when traveling home. Policy solutions in Central America have tried making transportation safer (see below for policy solutions). Other scholars, such as Itallurde, point to the culpability of corporations "based on the concepts and doctrines of tortuous negligence, failure to protect, and aiding and abetting".Iturralde, Christina. 2010. "Searching for Accountability on the Border: Justice for the Women of Ciudad Juárez". In ''Terrorising Women: Feminicide in the Americas''. 251. Other scholars, such as historians Steven Volk and Marian Schlotterbeck, hypothesize that there may be a "macho backlash" behind these killings: "Certainly male egos, of fathers and would-be boyfriends, must suffer some deflation from this dramatic change in the economic influence of these young women." In 2015, Mexican Supreme Court required the police to reopen and investigate a murder case from a femicide "perspective". However, there have been some actions taken to address this issue. The criminalization of femicide and various laws passed in specific countries have aimed to stop this problem. In addition, the United Nations has taken a role in stopping this with a commission that calls for action to be taken. There is a growing social awareness around this issue with #NiUnaMenos (Not One Woman Less) or #NiUnaMas (Not One More Woman). Lastly, female friendly urban zones have been created as a concrete solution. These zones include female-only transportation, and government centers offering services specifically for women. Central American policymakers have experimented with creating "female-friendly urban zones" over the past decade. "Pink" public transportation networks have been established in Mexico, Brazil, El Salvador, and Guatemala to provide women-only forms of public transportation to stem sexual harassment, and to provide safety for women. These efforts have received substantial praise and criticism. Criticism from feminists and others often point to the efficacy of gender segregation in changing gender norms of oppression - specifically the Latin American cultural conventions of "machismo" and " marianismo", which are potent social regulators throughout the region.


Mexico

Amnesty International estimates that there have been around 34,000 female homicides in Mexico between 1986 and 2009. According to the National Citizen Observatory on Femicide, only 49 percent of the 800 cases of women killed in Mexico between June and July 2017 were investigated as femicide. In 2018, "93 percent of crimes were either not reported or not investigated." One activist, Natalia Reyes, reported that only 8 percent of femicides in Mexico are punished.Lettieri, Michael. ''Violence Against Women in Mexico''. Trans-Border Institute, 2017, ''Violence Against Women in Mexico''. http://sites.sandiego.edu/tbi-femicide/files/2017/12/2016-2017-Femicide-Report-Final.pdf Almost 35,000 people were murdered in 2019, Mexico's most violent year on record. Additionally, in 2012, Mexico was ranked as the 16th country in the world with the highest rates of femicides. In August 2021, a total of 108 femicides occurred in Mexico, the highest since 2019. In 2016, Mexico had a rate of female homicides of 4.6 femicides per 100,000, and there were a total of 2,746 female deaths with the presumption of homicide, but that has more than doubled in the past 5 years. On average, about 10 women are killed everyday."La Violencia Femenicida En Mexico, Aproximaciones y Tendencias 1985-2016". Dec. 2017, www.gob.mx/cms/uploads/attachment/file/293666/violenciaFeminicidaMx_07dic_web.p df. In this year, the top three states with the highest rates of female deaths with the presumption of homicide were
Colima Colima (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Colima ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Colima), is one of the 31 states that make up the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It shares its name with its capital and main city, Colima. Colima i ...
(with 16.3 deaths per 100,000 women),
Guerrero Guerrero is one of the 32 states that comprise the Administrative divisions of Mexico, 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in Municipalities of Guerrero, 81 municipalities and its capital city is Chilpancingo and its largest city is Acap ...
(13.1 per 100,000), and
Zacatecas , image_map = Zacatecas in Mexico (location map scheme).svg , map_caption = State of Zacatecas within Mexico , coordinates = , coor_pinpoint = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type ...
(9.7 per 100,000). The top three municipalities in 2016 were
Acapulco de Juárez Acapulco de Juárez (), commonly called Acapulco ( , also , nah, Acapolco), is a city and major seaport in the state of Guerrero on the Pacific Coast of Mexico, south of Mexico City. Acapulco is located on a deep, semicircular bay and has b ...
(24.22 per 100,000),
Tijuana Tijuana ( ,"Tijuana"
(US) and
< ...
(10.84 per 100,000), and Juárez (10.36 per 100,000). During the years 2002–2010, the state of
Chihuahua Chihuahua may refer to: Places *Chihuahua (state), a Mexican state **Chihuahua (dog), a breed of dog named after the state **Chihuahua cheese, a type of cheese originating in the state **Chihuahua City, the capital city of the state **Chihuahua Mun ...
had the highest rate of female homicides in the world: 58.4 per 100,000. The rates of femicide in the municipality of Juárez have decreased significantly in just five years; in 2011, the rate of female deaths with the presumption of homicides was 31.49 per 100,000, and by 2016 it had decreased to 10.36 per 100,000. There has been large demonstrations in Mexico against femicides; however, most took place after 11 February 2020. This was the day seven-year old Fatima Cecilia was kidnapped from school. She was found dead in a plastic bag a couple of days later. A movement called "Un Dia Sin Mujeres" (a day without women) spread all over the world right after Fatima's murder.


Brazil

Femicide is a crime provided for in the Brazilian Penal Code, item VI, paragraph 2, of art. 121, when committed "against a woman on grounds of female condition". The Paragraph 2-A, of art. 121, complements the section, by stating that there are reasons of female condition when the crime involves domestic and family violence or contempt or discrimination against women. The penalty for this crime is 12 to 30 years in prison.


Colombia

Colombia has followed 16 other Latin American countries by passing a law defining and punishing femicide for being a specific crime. On 6 July 2015, the government of Colombia passed a law that legally defines femicide as a crime with 20 to 50 years of jail time. This new law is named after Rosa Elvira Cely, a Colombian woman who was raped and murdered in 2012. Cely's death sparked national outrage, and caused thousands to march down the streets of
Bogotá Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city of Colombia, and one of the largest ...
. Her murderer was found guilty, and was sentenced to 48 years in prison. The challenge now becomes implementing the law. Miguel Emilio La Rota, head of public policy and planning at Colombia's attorney general's office, said that the prosecutor's office must change how it investigates femicide. Colombia prosecuted a
transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through ...
woman's murder as a femicide for the first time in 2018, sentencing Davinson Stiven Erazo Sánchez to twenty years in a psychiatric center for "aggravated femicide" a year after he killed Anyela Ramos Claros, a transgender woman.


El Salvador

In El Salvador, an endeavor has been made to create multiple government centers that house many gender-specific services in one place, to cut down on commute time, and to increase the physical safety of women as they seek services such as counseling, child care, and reproductive health. "The first center hopes to provide access to an estimated 162,000 women from the neighboring departments of La Libertad and Sonsonate. Supported by former Chilean president and head of
UN Women The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, also known as UN Women, is a United Nations entity working for gender equality and the empowerment of women. UN Women advocates for the rights of women and girls, and foc ...
Michelle Bachelet Verónica Michelle Bachelet Jeria (; born 29 September 1951) is a Chilean politician who served as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2018 to 2022. She previously served as President of Chile from 2006 to 2010 and 2014 to 20 ...
, the initiative cost $3.2 million, with an additional $20 million loan from the Inter-American Development Bank earmarked for the construction of new sites." Critics of this action point to the contradictory abortion laws in El Salvador that are some of the harshest in the world: abortion is completely illegal, even to save the life of the mother, or to help a survivor of
incest Incest ( ) is human sexual activity between family members or close relatives. This typically includes sexual activity between people in consanguinity (blood relations), and sometimes those related by affinity ( marriage or stepfamily), ado ...
or rape. "Coupled with the judicial system's weaknesses, violence is abetted by the same government that aims to protect and defend. High levels of impunity leave many crimes unresolved or unreported."


Guatemala

Guatemala has championed the use of femicide as a concept by incorporating the term in its constitution: Decree 22. Lawmakers in this country passed Decree 22 in 2008 that defined Laws Against Femicide and Other Forms of Violence Against Women. These laws include 28 articles about prosecutable types of
violence against women Violence against women (VAW), also known as gender-based violence and sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), are violent acts primarily or exclusively committed against woman, women or Girl, girls, usually by Man, men or Boy, boys. Such ...
. They also created the Office of the Presidential Commission Against Femicide, enforcing the concept in the government and an anti-femicide unit of the National Police. Some results of the laws have proved encouraging, allowing many women to now report violence perpetrated against them. In the first month of 2010, a total of 27,000 women reported violence against them to the state, a large increase in the number of reported crimes. The laws also have helped several people jail their assailants, and have increased the severity of punishments for perpetrators. However, the actual enforcement of the new laws has been varied. Few offenders are ever actually convicted for the specific crime of femicide, and there are only three public prosecution offices in the entire country able to deal with the issue of femicide.Shulman, Aaron. "The Rise of Femicide"
''
The New Republic ''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hu ...
''. 29 December 2010. Web. 1 April 2013.
In fact, only 127 convictions in 2010 occurred for female violence even though 46,000 cases overall were registered. Also, from 2000 to 2008, 98 percent of all femicide cases have remained in
impunity Impunity is avoidance of punishment, loss, or other negative consequences for an action. In the international law of human rights, impunity is failure to bring perpetrators of human rights violations to justice and, as such, itself constitutes a ...
. Some feminists argue that the culture in Guatemala is to blame. They cite that many male judges and other male government officials are sympathetic to the view that men's actions are justified, because they remain within the private sphere of the home. Attorney Romeo Silverio Gonzalez argued for this viewpoint when he stated that the new laws of Decree 22 were unconstitutional. He said that the laws were in contradiction to the private affairs of marriage. Attorney General Claudia Paz countered his viewpoint, ultimately defending the laws by justifying their existence because they protect women's rights. Overall, the legislation of these new laws has helped Guatemala improve the awareness of femicide and reporting of the crime, but enforcement and justice for femicide still have not been achieved.Andrade, Kara. "Protecting the Rights of Guatemalan Women"
'' Americas Quarterly''. Americas Society and the Council of the Americas, 13 October 2011. Web. 1 April 2013.
Femicide as the socially tolerated murder of women in Guatemala relies on the presence of systematic impunity, historically rooted gender inequalities, and the pervasive normalization of violence as a social relation.


North America


United States

Femicide in the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...
accounts for the deaths of more than five women daily, and 70% of the total deaths of women among high-income countries. One of the largest predictors of femicide in the United States is the appearance of physical abuse, which was found in 79% of all femicide cases in
North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia a ...
. Gun availability in the United States has also had a substantial effect on femicide, correlating to 67.9% of deaths in a study by Karen D. Stout. Living in neighborhoods with increased
poverty Poverty is the state of having few material possessions or little income. Poverty can have diverse < ...
, ethnic heterogeneity, and decreased collective efficacy (social cohesion among neighbors) are all found to be linked to increased femicide rates in that area. Also, reporting of female victims of femicide in the US is stymied, due to the assumption that female victims are not an anomaly, but are driven by their perceived vulnerability and passivity.


Canada

Proper statistics of femicide in
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...
can be difficult to come across, since possible acts of femicide are regularly labelled as the killing of a spouse. However, femicide is a widespread violent act that takes place in countries all over the world, and Canada is no exception. In 2019, there was a total of 678 homicides Canada-wide, of these cases 144 of the victims were female. Additionally, the rate at which female victims were killed by a spouse or intimate partner, was over eight times greater than the number of males killed by a spouse or intimate partner. Historically speaking, less data exists regarding femicide in Canada; however, what is available shows a disproportionate amount of violence and femicide towards Indigenous women. Reports of the last few decades indicate over 600 murders of Indigenous females in Canada. Unfortunately, in many cases, homicidal acts towards Indigenous females often aren't characterized as femicides, indicating that not all victims of femicide are treated in the same framework. Yet the research indicates that certain ethnic groups are at a greater risk for femicide compared to the rest of the population. To understand these statistics in Canada, an intersectional approach must be considered, to recognize the historical and ongoing effects of
colonialism Colonialism is a practice or policy of control by one people or power over other people or areas, often by establishing colonies and generally with the aim of economic dominance. In the process of colonisation, colonisers may impose their rel ...
that disproportionately target
Indigenous peoples Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...
within the country. Canada's continued negligence as a state to examine the effects of colonialism on Indigenous peoples has related to the high risk of femicide, and violence for Indigenous women and girls. Failure to acknowledge the deaths of Indigenous women ignores the decades of inequality and injustice that have, and continue to be, perpetuated by colonialism.   Colonialism produces a sense of dominant authoritative power that allows for the disregard of Indigenous individuals, and in this case, a disregard for the murders of Indigenous females. Indigenous women are reported to be five times more likely to experience violence and death compared with other groups in Canada. These murders are acts of racialized violence, in addition to the gendered violence of femicide. However, more often than not, these murders are regarded as a spousal homicide, rather than femicide, disregarding the violence and oppression Indigenous women face. In the mid-twentieth century, Indigenous women and girls were forced and coerced into undergoing sterilization procedures as an act of femicide, as well as
genocide Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the L ...
, at fourteen different Indian Hospitals across the state that were federally operated. Sterilization policies were implemented as a way to reduce the size and influence of Indigenous communities, resulting in there being about 1,200 cases of forced or coerced sterilization, that directly targeted the reproductive rights and properties of Indigenous women and girls. Exclusionary politics and legal discrimination throughout the history of Canada, means that the violence faced by Indigenous women and girls has gone unacknowledged, serving to further state-controlled colonial power over Indigenous peoples. The scattered reports of femicide in Canada indicate a lack of understanding of how various acts of gender, race, class, and sexuality all intersect to create the environment of violence Indigenous women are subjected to. While femicide in Canada affects all women, it disproportionately targets the lives of Indigenous women and girls due to historical and ongoing actions of colonialism within the state.   One prominent instance of femicide occurring in Canada is the 1989 École Polytechnique massacre, which was an antifeminist mass shooting, which killed fourteen women, and injured ten women and four men. Another example of a femicide attack in Canada is the 2018 Toronto van attack, a vehicle-ramming attack which saw eleven casualties, and fifteen injured. The perpetrator is a self-described " incel", whose goal was to exact revenge on women, after self-perceived social rejection.


United Nations

In 2013, the
United Nations General Assembly The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; french: link=no, Assemblée générale, AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the UN. Cur ...
updated their policy by recognizing that "gender-related killing of women and girls was criminalized in some countries as 'femicide' or 'feminicide', and has been incorporated as such into national legislation in those countries." Currently, Dr. Dubravka Šimonović is the special rapporteur to the UN. She has been an advocate of anti-femicide policy implementation. She has presented the UN with reports such as "Modalities for the establishment of femicides/gender-related killings". Dr. Šimonović has also proposed a "femicide watch" program to monitor femicide practices across the globe. The goal of Simonovic's academic program is to analyze data on femicide cases, to identify risk factors and any issues in public policy.


Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

The rates of femicides has drastically increased during the time of lockdowns due to the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...
. Around 50,000 women are being murdered every year. This is due to the stay-at-home measures, that have increased the levels of isolation for women and girls. This becomes a life-or-death situation if they are locked in with violent partners or relatives. "The increasing economic instability and unemployment rates worldwide" has led to "heightened violence" for women. Additionally, there has been an increase in calls to domestic violence hotlines in various countries since the lockdown began. Most countries also "diverted" resources and efforts "from violence against women response to immediate COVID-19 relief".


Prevention

Femicide, as the word suggests, specifically targets females. However, there are still methods to preventing the act, such as implementing laws that would specifically work to improve the safety of women. For example, harsher punishments for those that partake in the act of murdering a woman solely based on their gender could face a minimum sentence of two hundred and fifty years, discouraging anyone from attempting to do so.


Raising awareness

Other methods of prevention would be to bring awareness to femicide. Any sort of crime that would be committed against a woman would be interpreted as an act of femicide; from there, people would be more aware of the act, and in turn, help the prevention of femicide.


Training officials

All officials involved in a gender-based crime should be adequately trained in order to offer support. Service workers, police officers, and legal professionals are some of the groups that should receive extensive training on signs of violence in different social groups, including minorities and migrants. Training is the first step to creating policies to prevent femicide.


Legal solutions

Today, many females around the world are killed as a result of intentional killings towards them. Solutions to this problem include making laws and policies for violence against women. Techniques that can be developed include crime prevention policies that are aimed at domestic and family violence. Additionally, countries worldwide should consider developing the status of women in their countries and create laws on gender equality. For example, in Latin America there have been many new laws to label the murders of women as femicide or feminicide. Femicide is defined as the killing of a woman by a man based on misogyny. At the same time, feminicide goes beyond this definition and implicates the state's complicity in maintaining violence against women. These changes have been made due to global human rights norms, like the 1994 Inter-American Convention on the Prevention and the Eradication of Violence against Women, which expresses that gender violence is the state's responsibility. Nevertheless, these international norms are not regulated. They do not implement how a state should exercise new laws and policies to enforce violence against women. Some countries have passed laws belonging to femicide or crimes labeled as feminicides. In Mexico and Nicaragua, female activists became involved in legal activism so their state could increase responsibility for female violence. During a small political opportunity with a strict regime in Nicaragua, Femicide resulted from the countries' responsiveness to feminist demands. In Mexico, feminicides became successful because of good campaigning by local feminists connected to national arenas and through the intervention of feminist federal legislators. A known Mexican female activist, Marcela Lagarde, saw the rise of women being murdered in Mexico and demanded that the state take responsibility for the killings. She brought in the concept of femicide (the murder of females through violence and the state as complicit), which quickly spread to Latin America, and as of 2017, femicide and feminicide became crimes in 18 countries.


Film

A 2019 German documentary by Karen Naundorf with the title ''Frauen gegen Männer-Gewalt'' or in the French version ''La révolte des femmes'' (English: Women Against Male Violence) shows the effect of violence and murder targeted towards women in Argentina. The film was made freely available to watch on arte.tv, from 25 October 2019 to 8 October 2022.Argentinien: Frauen gegen Männer-Gewalt
''www.arte.tv'', accessed 3 November 2019
''Darlings'' (2022) on Netflix is an Indian film which examines spousal abuse and retaliation against the abusers in an "offbeat" way.


See also

* Antifeminism *
Gendercide Gendercide is the systematic killing of members of a specific gender. The term is related to the general concepts of assault and murder against victims due to their gender, with violence against women and men being problems dealt with by human ...
*
Genocidal rape Genocidal rape, a form of wartime sexual violence, is the action of a group which has carried out acts of mass rape and gang rapes, against its enemy during wartime as part of a genocidal campaign. During the Armenian Genocide, the second Sino ...
* Incel *
Inquisition The Inquisition was a group of institutions within the Catholic Church whose aim was to combat heresy, conducting trials of suspected heretics. Studies of the records have found that the overwhelming majority of sentences consisted of penances, ...
* Magic and religion *
Witchcraft Witchcraft traditionally means the use of magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually women who were believed to have u ...
*
Witch-hunt A witch-hunt, or a witch purge, is a search for people who have been labeled witches or a search for evidence of witchcraft. The classical period of witch-hunts in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America took place in the Early Modern peri ...
*
Witch trials in the early modern period Witch trials in the early modern period saw that between 1400 to 1782, around 40,000 to 60,000 were killed due to suspicion that they were practicing witchcraft. Some sources estimate that a total of 100,000 trials occurred at its maximum for a s ...
*
Salem witch trials The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. More than 200 people were accused. Thirty people were found guilty, 19 of whom w ...
*
Torture of witches Witch trials in the early modern period saw that between 1400 to 1782, around 40,000 to 60,000 were killed due to suspicion that they were practicing witchcraft. Some sources estimate that a total of 100,000 trials occurred at its maximum for a s ...
*
European witchcraft Belief in witchcraft in Europe can be traced to classical antiquity and has continuous history during the Middle Ages, culminating in the Early Modern witch trials and giving rise to the fairy tale and popular culture "witch" stock character o ...
* Modern witch-hunts *
Androcide Androcide refers to the systematic killing of men, boys, or males in general. Worldwide, males constitute 79% of non-conflict homicides and the majority of direct conflict deaths. Lexicology ''Androcide'' is a coordinate term of femicide and a ...
, the killing of men *
Feminism Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
* Gender and religion * Gender apartheid *
Honor killing An honor killing (American English), honour killing (Commonwealth English), or shame killing is the murder of an individual, either an outsider or a member of a family, by someone seeking to protect what they see as the dignity and honor of ...
* Honour killing in Pakistan * Hypermasculinity * Manosphere *
Matriarchy Matriarchy is a social system in which women hold the primary power positions in roles of authority. In a broader sense it can also extend to moral authority, social privilege and control of property. While those definitions apply in general E ...
* Misandry
hatred Hatred is an intense negative emotional response towards certain people, things or ideas, usually related to opposition or revulsion toward something. Hatred is often associated with intense feelings of anger Anger, also known as wrath or ...
of,
contempt Contempt is a pattern of attitudes and behaviour, often towards an individual or a group, but sometimes towards an ideology, which has the characteristics of disgust and anger. The word originated in 1393 in Old French contempt, contemps, ...
for, or
prejudice Prejudice can be an affect (psychology), affective feeling towards a person based on their perceived group membership. The word is often used to refer to a preconceived (usually unfavourable) evaluation or classification (disambiguation), classi ...
against men *
Misogyny Misogyny () is hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against women. It is a form of sexism that is used to keep women at a lower social status than men, thus maintaining the societal roles of patriarchy. Misogyny has been widely practiced ...
– hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against women *
Misogynist terrorism Misogynist terrorism is terrorism motivated by the desire to punish women. It is an extreme form of misogyny, the policing of women's compliance to patriarchal gender expectations. Misogynist terrorism uses mass indiscriminate violence in an atte ...
* Missing women, a term which is used in reference to a statistical phenomenon which was first identified in Asia (as opposed to the disappearance of individuals) *
Missing and murdered Indigenous women Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) is an epidemic of violence against Indigenous women in Canada, the United States, and Latin America; notably those in the FNIM ( First Nations, Inuit, Métis) and Native American communities. Acro ...
*
Patriarchy Patriarchy is a social system in which positions of dominance and privilege are primarily held by men. It is used, both as a technical anthropological term for families or clans controlled by the father or eldest male or group of males a ...
* Raptio *
Sexism Sexism is prejudice or discrimination based on one's sex or gender. Sexism can affect anyone, but it primarily affects women and girls.There is a clear and broad consensus among academic scholars in multiple fields that sexism refers prima ...
*
Violence against men Violence against men is a term for violent acts that are disproportionately or exclusively committed against men or boys. Men are over-represented as both perpetrators and victims of violence. Perceptions and aspects Studies of social attit ...
*
Violence against women Violence against women (VAW), also known as gender-based violence and sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), are violent acts primarily or exclusively committed against woman, women or Girl, girls, usually by Man, men or Boy, boys. Such ...
* War rape *
Wartime sexual violence Wartime sexual violence is rape or other forms of sexual violence committed by combatants during armed conflict, war, or military occupation often as spoils of war, but sometimes, particularly in ethnic conflict, the phenomenon has broader s ...
* Women and religion


References


External links


"Female Genocide in India" in Intersections: Gender and Sexuality in Asia and the Pacific Issue 22, October 2009
{{Authority control °.° 1976 neologisms