Men sometimes kill women because they are women. Sometimes, as is likely the case with the horrific killings in Atlanta, men kill women because they are women and because of other aspects of their identity—race, sexual orientation, disabilities. But still, because they’re women. This gendered killing of women has a name: femicide, coined by Diana Russell almost 30 years ago.
Author: Caroline Davidson
Caroline Davidson is a law professor at Willamette University, College of Law. Her teaching and scholarship focus on international criminal law, human rights, and sexual and gender-based violence. This piece is an outgrowth of her law review article, Should We Speak Femicide?, which will be published in the American University Law Review.