Structural Violence: a Global Analysis

Given that the natural birth ratio is 106 males to 100 females, and that females tend to have longer life expectancies, it is shocking to learn that “more than 100 million girls and women are missing” (Sen, 1990, p. 61). Birth ratios of males and females would predict that there should be more women living today, particularly in Asia (Bunch, 1995). But in some parts of the world, men outnumber women by 20:1 (United Nations, 1996). To comprehend this staggering problem, 100 million “missing” women is equivalent to the total number of war-related deaths of 100 Pol Pot–initiated famines and massacres in Cambodia (1975 to 1978), 200 of the genocidal civil wars recently witnessed in Rwanda (1994 to 1995), and 2.5 times the deaths of World War II (1939 to 1945) (Sivard, 1996). But how many have even noticed, let alone demanded accountability for, this killing of girls and women? A primary reason for this disregard is that much of the violence