The Women Warrior

What is Infanticide?

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Infanticide [ In - fan- ti-cide ] : The intentional killing of children under the age of 12 months

• A person who kills an infant especially their own child
• A crime of killing a child within a year of birth
• The practice in some societies of killing unwanted children soon after birth

Infanticide in China

• Boys are more valuable to the family because as the family gets old they can help take car of the parents, if they had a girl they girl would not help take care of the family because she has a family of her own (the parents would feel abandoned.)
• Chinese girls are twice as likely to die in their first year of life as boys.
• The death rate of girls in their first year of life is up to three times higher in rural areas than in urban areas.
• The risk of death is three times higher for second girls than first girls.
• Second girls are more than twice as likely to die in their first week after birth as boys.
• 95% of abandoned children in rural areas live outside of state-controlled orphanages.
• Fewer than half of China’s orphans receive government subsidies.[vi]
• Parents who remarry have been known to abandon their child so they can have a new child with their new spouse.
• In 1995, the Chinese government reported that there were 40,000 orphanages.
• In 2009, Americans adopted more orphans from China than in any other country, totaling 3001 adoptions.
• In 2011, the most recent year for which data is available, Americans adopted 2587 children from China.[x]
• A total of 24,635 Chinese mainland children were adopted in 2012. Eighty-seven percent were adopted by parents from the mainland, while the remaining 3,311 children were adopted by overseas parents.[xi]
• Around 74 percent of Chinese mainland children adopted by overseas parents in 2012 were disabled or older children.[xii]

The Women Warrior: No Name Women

Infanticide in India

In this chapter we find out that Kingston had an aunt who killed herself and her new born baby because she feels guilty that she has to kill her own baby. Kingston family does not like to talk about because its a curse to the family and they don't want to be judged by the other people. Kingston is trying to figure out what happened , but her mom chooses not to give her anymore answers. Therefore, Kingston has to make speculations. For example she thinks her aunt could've gotten rapped.

"I killed my child to save it from the lifelong ignominy of being the daughter of a poor family that cannot afford to pay a decent dowry. But all the same, it was extremely difficult to steel myself for the act. A mother who has borne a child cannot bear to see it suffer even for a little while, let alone bring herself to kill it. But I had to do it, because my husband and I concluded that it was better to let our child suffer an hour or two and die than suffer throughout life (Venkatramani, 1992, p. 127)."

Men are usually the main income-earners, either because they are more employable or earn higher wages for the same work, or because they are able to do more agricultural work in subsistence economies. Since male babies have a greater income potential, they are less likely to be killed.

Potential pensions: In many societies, parents depend on their children to look after them in old age. But in many of these cultures a girl leaves her parental family and joins her husband's family when she marries. The result is that parents with sons gain extra resources for their old age, when their sons marry, while parents with daughters lose their 'potential pensions' when they marry and move away. This gives parents a strong reason to prefer male children. Some parents (particularly poor ones) who can't afford to support a large family, will kill female babies. Girls are considered a drain on family resources during their childhood without bringing economic benefits later on.

Dowry: Some girl babies are killed so that the family doesn't have to pay a dowry when they get married. In Indian society it is tradition for the parents of the bride to give a dowry to the groom and his family. The dowry consists of large amounts of money and valuable goods. For families with several daughters this can be a serious financial burden.

The Women Warrior

By: Maxine Hong Kingston