When Do We Call It "Gendercide"?

by Jen Nedeau · 2009-09-14 22:51:00 UTC
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That is essentially the question posed by Andrew Sullivan this week as he quotes a passage from Johann Hari's Slate article about the hottest piece of feminist literature hitting the shelves, Half the Sky, by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl Wudunn. Hari writes:

Today, now, more than 100 million women are missing. They have vanished. In normal circumstances, women live longer than men-but China has 107 males for every 100 females in its overall population, India has 108, and Pakistan has 111. Where have these women gone? They have been killed or allowed to die. Medical treatment is often reserved for boys, while violence against women is routine. More girls are killed in this "gendercide" each decade than in all the genocides of the 20th century. This year, another 2 million girls will "disappear."

But this isn't considered a story. While we rightly roared at racial apartheid, we act as though gender apartheid is a natural, immutable fact.

So if 2 million girls disappear, but CNN doesn't cover it - did they ever really exist? That is one of many questions we must deal with before even deciding if "gendercide" is indeed happening.

But, before taking on CNN, I'll flip it to you all - how many women and girls have to die before "gendercide" is a real policy and media concern? How do these numbers make you feel and think? What can we do next?

Photo credit: Delcio G.P. Filho

Jen Nedeau Jen Nedeau is a media relations professional and a writer based in New York City.
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