Infanticide

Abstract

Infanticide's gendered aspects relate to the sex of the perpetrator, sex selection of the act's victim, the material circumstances that prompt infanticide, and the sanctions exercised by society. Although in today's large patriarchal societies of China and India infanticide is sex‐selective, this does not hold across time and cultures. Cultural attitudes toward punishment or tolerance of infanticide are distinctly gendered, and relate to socially constructed ideals of gender and gender roles. Societies that exhibit relatively more gender equality and egalitarian access to resources exhibit relatively less infanticide.