Femicide or feminicide is the intentional murder that exclusively targets women or girls because of their gender or murder that disproportionately targets women or girls. It is often done as a method to control. According to UN's estimates, the interval within femicides of women and girls by their family members, partners or non-intimate individuals globally is every 10 minutes. Causes of femicide include bigotry, jealousy, revenge, male entitlement, gender bias, harmful gender roles, gender stereotypes, cultural phenomenons such as so-called "honor killings" or female genital mutilation (particularly Type 3), as well as coercive control, stopping a pregnancy, social beliefs such as sati, and masculine hegemony that perpetuates the unequal power between men and women.
A spouse or partner is responsible for almost 40% of femicides, or homicides of a female victim. Additionally, femicide may be underreported due to insufficient evidence. Femicide often includes domestic violence and forced abortions. In China, femicide occurs as sex-selective abortions, while other cultures use gender-selective infanticide and geronticide to perform femicide.