ABSTRACT
At the heart of Stein’s critique is skepticism that the term “gendercide” can be applied in cases where gender is combined with, or apparently subsumed by, other causal variables. I think it is noteworthy that the exceptions he allows to the gender framing – that is, killings where “selection was [indeed] undertaken on the basis of gender per se” – are those that overwhelmingly or exclusively target women (“suttee [sati, or widow-burning], female infanticide, and witchcraft”).2 But other causal variables also seem profoundly relevant in understanding these gender-selective atrocities against women. An age variable, for example, is relevant in all the cases cited, as it is in most gendercides against men. Female infanticide targets infant girls, and both sati and witchcraft seem closely correlated with older women. But in the case of
women and girls, this age variable does not seem to preclude, for Stein, a legitimate focus on gender.
