Femicide: A Cause for Global Economic Concern?

In this short video and article on the topic of gendercide, reporter Elizabeth Vargas travels to India to found out from the people of India personally why there is such a shortage of females. She discovered that although aborting a fetus of a female child is illegal because of the shortage of females, families still continue to abort them because they don't want the burden that the baby girls brings. Vargas also discovered that illegal sex determination clinics can be found just about on every street. Men and their families also the wives to have sex determination tests and abort the baby if it’s female.

“It appears that more girls have been killed in the last 50 years, precisely because they were girls than men were killed in all the battles of the 20th Century.” More girls are killed in this routine “Gendercide” in any 1-decade than people were slaughtered in all the genocides of the 20th century” (Kristof & WuDunn, 2009). It is believed in this Century the paramount moral challenge will be the struggle for gender equality around the world. Half the Sky by reporters Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn set out to investigate 3 brutal situations in developing countries, which include Sex trafficking, gender based violence and female mortality. The book and movement help “ignite the change needed to put an end to the oppression of women and

Gender inequality has maintained the suppression of women worldwide and unfortunately has impacted third world countries with the greatest magnitude. Everyday in these countries there are countless occurrences of physical, emotional, and psychological abuse that must be acknowledged as a primary concern for the world to help overcome. It is however important to recognize specific cultural and religious practices of gender hierarchy that are accepted by women in these countries. While keeping this in mind it is of paramount importance to keep sight of the consequences of abusing these cultural practices at the expense of women’s liberation and development.

On September 5, 1995, Hillary Clinton delivered an influential speech at The Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. Clinton expresses general concern over escalating violence toward women, in other word’s gendercide. “Gendercide refers to the systematic elimination of a specific gender group, normally female. It’s most common in India, China, and other regions in Southeast Asia” (GirlsKind Foundation). Crimes, such as bride trafficking, infanticide, abandonment, and dowry related murder; often take place within private households, going unnoticed and not even acknowledged. “Tragically, women are most often the ones whose human rights are violated. Even now, in the late 20th century, the rape of women continues to be used as an

All over the globe, violence and discrimination against women and girls violates their human rights and severely compromised their perception of equality. Culture, false beliefs and ancient traditions, such as early marriage, the nuclear family, gender-based discrimination, which lead to violence against women and femicide, destroyed young girls ' mental and physical wellbeing and self-esteem by supporting the ideas that gender-based discrimination and inequality is acceptable in our societies.

Former president and religious leader Jimmy Carter, among many other actions he’s taken to try and better this world, has, in an attempt to expose some of the atrocities committed against women from practically the beginning of time to today’s day and age, through advocacy and his book A Call to Action, brought to the attention of the masses the deplorable issues of inequality this world sees constantly. From barbaric practices done in underdeveloped countries such as FGC (female genital cutting) and , to discriminatory, violent acts seen in today’s modern, civilized society such sexual assault and abuse toward women, Mr. Carter addresses the issues many are ignorant to. He not only addresses the issues of inequality, but makes strides to diminish violence entirely

In Bob Herbert’s, “Punished For Being Female” he starts by illustrating the atrocities done to women done in the last month alone. These acts are horrendous in nature and happen quite frequently due to the normalization of violence towards women. This is no sudden outbreak of violence as the news has covered instances such as these but have not been taken seriously. A big part in why this continues is believed to be because the consequences for such crimes are unlikely. Herbert goes on to list incidents in Pakistan and India in which women are treated as lesser than human without any true repercussions of their actions. This is believed to be occurring due to women simply being women

The thesis of the article written by Aashika Damodar is; “Gender-based violence both in the developed and developing world are a complex blend of structural and cultural challenges, many of which are enhanced and enabled by communicative technology.” One example that is made in favor of the thesis is the “Mensajes De Paz”. Which is film documentary on gender-based violence in Guatemala. Where over 6000 women have been killed in last ten years and only two percent were convicted.

In Pakistan, thousands of women are dying each year because they are being accused of dishonoring their families. “The reason is rooted in sexual inequality in such countries,” Terence McCoy insists. Individuals are killing just women, and a genocide is not technically being committed because sex is not protected under the UN’s definition. Not only should the UN change its definition of genocide to include sex, but also it should change its definition to include age.

SERNAM is a Chilean program created for women and men in order to promote equity among them; this program was founded in 1991 and it is totally decentralized. This web page contains a lot of information about the Chilean Femicides, explaining the diverse types of violence provoked by men against women when they are in a relationship or even friendship. Equally important is the role that women have in this type of associations, in Chile it has been considered that woman, just for the fact to be a woman , live diverse types of violence from their husbands, boyfriends or friends. These situations had been justified in many cultures, including the Chilean one, because it was believed that men have the right to control the freedom and live of

Discrimination toward genders has been put on a repetitive cycle throughout history. In developing countries around the world, discrimination of women is evident. “In China, the role of women changed drastically during the Mao Zedong era (1949 – 1976). Communism allowed women, who had previously been mostly limited to existence inside the household, to become social beings” (nobullying.com). Shortly after that time period, the continent of Africa went through issues with gender discrimination. The percentages of women being victims of domestic violence in Africa were extremely high. Other impactful issues the continent faces are forcing arranged marriages, female circumcision, and depriving woman from the ability to produce offspring. Latin America also struggled with this issue around the same time as Africa. Countries such as Bolivia, Guatemala, and Argentina have had widespread issues of sex trafficking.

Genocides refer to specific calculated arrangements by an ethnic or religious group, leader or government to intentionally eliminate an entire group of people for political, religious, or cultural reasons. They typically consist of mass murders that is abnormal for warfare. Although most people are aware of the Holocaust, that event was not the first. Genocides have occurred as early as the 15th century. Gendercides, or genocides in which only a specific gender is targeted, have occurred as early as the medieval period. Recently in India, the amount of females being born has drastically dropped over the years. The female gender in India is decreasing because men encourage women to abort their children if they are not men. More importantly,

Genocide is an ancient old crime.Genocides in prehistory were often organised not just to eliminate enemy ethnicities, but to integrate and exploit their representatives. It was children and women who were spared the killings. They were seen as the group least able to retaliate, and as parents of offspring for the central group.By contrast, males were often killed. The roots of gender-cideagainst men and boys are

Female infanticide has been accepted for centuries in many countries, and is more prominent in India and China than in any other countries around the world. It is illegal in India, however it is reported by Unicef that up to 50 million girls and women are “missing” in India as a result of systemic sex discrimination.

“Maria Isabel, a 15-year-old student who worked in a shop, was raped and tortured; her body was found in a bag, tied with barbed wire, her face disfigured and her nails torn out.” (Prieto-Carron, Thomson, and Macdonald, p.25)