Warning: heavy topic. But one that needs to be talked about. Gendercide is defined as “gender-selective mass killing.” In many cases, gendercide involves the deliberate killing of women and girls. In an in-depth article in The Economist a couple of months ago, the subheading reads, “Killed, aborted or neglected, at least 100 million girls have disappeared—and the number is rising.” Often, gendercide takes place before the baby is born or just after, while the girls are still infants.

Gendercide is the starkest example of the fact that women, to this day, are seen as the less desired sex. According to the Economist, there are a number of reasons why girls are seen as less valuable than boys, or maybe even a burden:

“Perhaps hard physical labour is still needed for the family to make its living. Perhaps only sons may inherit land. Perhaps a daughter is deemed to join another family on marriage and you want someone to care for you when you are old. Perhaps she needs a dowry.”

Interestingly, gendercide against females is exacerbated in modern times. In the past, when larger families were common, if you didn’t have a boy you would just keep trying. Now, when there is pressure to keep families small (and affordable), and the ultrasound technology exists to know the sex of a foetus before birth, sex-selective abortion is possible. The end result is skewed birth rates, like in China and northern India where more than 120 boys are being born for every 100 girls.

There is concern that large populations of single men are bad for stability, and with what we know about investing in women, if there aren’t enough women, communities can falter. The answer is to show the value of women: to allow them access to education and job opportunities, engage them in politics and governance, and help change ideas about their worth.