gynecide

gynecide

English

Etymology

Irregular formation from Ancient Greek γυνή (gunḗ, “woman”) + -cide. Compare gynocide and gynecocide.

Noun

gynecide (uncountable)

1. The killing of females, especially female infants. [from 20th c.]
   • 1987, Christine Overall, Ethics and Human Reproduction, Allen & Unwin 1989, p. 31:

     The technology of sex preselection enables people, particularly men, to act on their biases against women; it is not an exaggeration to regard the potential results as a form of gynecide – that is, a wrongful form of sexual discrimination that reduces the relative number of females.

   • 1997, Amy Richlin, ‘Pliny's Brassiere’, in Roman Sexualities, Princeton 1997, p. 212:

     So though there is nothing here to indicate any widespread gynecide, there does seem to be an assumption that women will be trying to have male children.

   • 2011, Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature, Penguin 2012, p. 509:

     The pressure to reduce these practices will almost certainly increase, if only because governments have finally done the demographic arithmetic and realized that gynecide today means unruly bachelors tomorrow […].