The Cultural Causes And Effects Of Gendercide

In certain communities in South Asia, the low status of girls has to be compensated for by the payment of a dowry by the parents of the girl to the husband at the time of marriage. This has resulted in a number of dowry crimes, including mental and physical torture, starvation, rape, and even the burning alive of women by their husbands and/or in-laws in cases where dowry payments are not met.

This essay will discuss the ways in which gender influences patterns and processes of victimisation, identifying key victimological perspectives and typologies. It will consider key authors in the discipline and offer definitions of terms used. The essay will identify three issues which may impact on gendered victimisation before acknowledging the argument that radical victimology offers a more balanced approach to gendered victimisation than positivist or critical viewpoints.

Woman have a lot to consider in their everyday lives. Although bringing a child into the world can be a beautiful thing, women should have the right to choose if they are ready for that commitment and if they want to bare any children at all. In some countries these are freedoms that women do not have. When reading about genders, it was sad to read about “honor killings”. Honor killings typically involve male family members killing a female family member who caused shame or disgrace to the family. The female could be a victim of rape and

All of those disadvantages for women in modern society are affecting young girls, and it is hard to raise daughters in today’s culture. We as a country should not just let this inequality continue. Men and women should be treated equally and it is important for parents to raise their kids to make the future less

Violence and cruelty directed at women starts from a very young age and it happens because certain cultures and governments allow it to exist and thrive within their population. Within the text, Steinem reveals that, “...child marriage contributes to the fact that the biggest cause of death among teenage girls worldwide is pregnancy and childbirth” (Steinem). Child marriage is still remarkably prominent in many cultures still to this day. These young adolescent bodies are being forced to carry a child the second they get their period and so many of these young girls die from this cultural normalcy. This illustrates why radical feminism is still essential to completely eradicate this kind of subtle brutality against developing girls. Often the cruelty can start even earlier than that with the second thier parents find out they are having a baby girl. Thanks to the ever growing baby boy preference, female fetuses are getting aborted more and more often. If the baby girl is already born they are often neglected, left to

Dena Davis in the 5th chapter of “Genetic Dilemmas: Reproductive Technology, Parental Choices, and Children’s Futures” explores the global attitudes, policies, and morality towards determination of sex. She begins with presenting empirical evidence of some preferences held in countries such as India or China where there is a clear desire for male children. This inclination is so deeply held that mothers can be socially and physically harmed when, by pure biological chance, they fail to produce a male child. Davis and others allow sex selection in these cases, purely in the interest of harm reduction of mothers and their daughters born into such a situation.

The WHO states that there are three core motivations for engaging in sex determination and sex selection which include “medical reasons such as preventing the birth of children affected or at risk of X-linked disorders; family balancing reasons where couples choose to have a child of one sex because they already have one or more children of the other sex; and gender preference reason often in favor of male offspring stemming from cultural, social, and economic bias in favor of male children and as a result of policies requiring couples to limit reproduction to one child, as in China.” In countries such as India and China, it is apparent that women can be harmed by sex selection

In the Eastern world, where boys are more heavily desired than girls, sex-selection is seen as a family’s perfect opportunity to have a boy. Unfortunately, with or without the availability of sex-selection in these areas, sexism remains a major problem. When many couples realize they are having a girl they will often malnourish or neglect the baby, as well as kill them through infanticide. Therefore, sex-selection in this region can prevent young girls from a life of abuse or negligence. The availability of sex-selection is not the problem in this area, but rather it is the lack of education that is preventing gender equality. Currently, there is a significant gap in the male to female ratio in Eastern countries. Of the entire Chinese population aged fourteen and younger, there are 1.16 boys for every girl, while in India there are 1.13 boys for every girl (CIA). Feminist movements, similar to the ones in the Western world in the 20th Century, need to take place in these areas. Additionally, women should be encouraged to participate in traditional male roles to show that they have just as much value as anyone

People often said that daughters were “someone else’s treasure” and that the sooner you parted ways with them the “better off” everyone was (Sheth 9). As a result of this male dominated mindset and society, women were caught in a cycle of misery and restraint that was seemed impossible to abandon (Indian Women). Unfortunately, it gave rise to some of the most evil practices in the Indian culture, such as Sati, child marriage and the limitations on female education.

People in India show a strong preference to not spend time raising girls. The sex birth ratio in India is one of the worst having 112 boys for every 100 girls born. Gill and Mitra-Kahn believe the reason for this lack of girls is due to

A third Hindu text says that if the woman aborts her child she will lose her place in the caste system. Hinduism believes that it is a public duty of a woman to have children so the family will continue and there will be new members to the society. Woman will terminate their pregnancy if they are having a girl. Girls have no opportunities for economic support and there are few jobs for woman. This is why this religion has a preference for boys and why woman prefer to have sons. This view and religious belief pressure can lead to an attempt to stop the birth of a girl this is called female foeticide. Since they condemn the act of abortion, women will do other things to terminate the pregnancy. (Murti and Mary ) (Hinduism and abortion)

India’s statistics are similar. According to the BBC “In 1961, for every 1,000 boys under the age of seven, there were 976 girls. Today, the figure has dropped to a dismal 914 girls. Although the number of women overall is improving (due to factors such as life expectancy), India's ratio of young girls to boys is one of the worst in the world after China. Many factors come into play to explain this: infanticide, abuse and neglect of girl children. But campaigners say the decline is largely due to the increased availability of antenatal sex screening, and they talk of a genocide”.

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.

It is regrettable that female infanticide and foeticide are rapidly decreasing the female population throughout India. The main factors that is responsible for the increase in the incidence of female infanticide and foeticide is the low status of women, son preference, and the practice of dowry across all casts groups.

In India, there are several ways of how the culture attributes to gendercide. Gendercide is happening in India mostly because of dowry and greed. Why have a daughter when you have to pay such a large sum to marry her off? It seems more logical to have sons to keep your wealth and then gain more wealth when your sons marry. Women must also worry about gendercide even into adulthood. Women are killed for not