Let’s get it straight – victims of femicide die violently because they are female

Dr Audrey Galvin from the Journalism section had an op-ed published in the Irish Independent last weekend. Dr Galvin cite how an uprising in France against the rise of femicide has led the media focusing on the nature of femicides - which is the murder of women because they are women. Some 275 women have died violently between 1996 and 2025. 20 children have died in incidents where women have died violently. Home is the most dangerous place for a victim of femicide, 179 women have been killed in their own house. One in every two victims are killed by a current or former male intimate partner, according to figures from Women’s Aid.

The piece calls for Irish society to start calling these murders femicides and not just through the lens of crime. Femicide is a growing social issue in Irish society and if we are creating awareness around it, we need to start naming it for what it is and include the gendered nature of these murders.