Diana Russell, the sociologist who coined the term "femicide" is dead
2020-07-30T11:01:49.531Z
The naturalized South African American writer and sociologist Diana EH Russell, a feminist scholar who dedicated her life to the repair of crimes against women, who popularized the term "femicide", died in Oakland, California, for a respiratory failure at the age of 81. The announcement of the disappearance, which took place on Tuesday 28 July, was published by the newspaper "San Francisco Chronicle". The term "femicide" as an extreme form of gender-based violence was first used by Diana Russell in 1976 in the campaign to build an international tribunal on crimes against women, which culminated in a meeting in Brussels for denunciation of all forms of discrimination and oppression suffered by women at all latitudes. Two years earlier, in 1974, the scholar, based on research carried out in the previous decade at Harvard University, published the book "The politics of rape" (translated into Italian by Carmela Paloschi and published by Limenetimena Edizioni in 1976) in which investigated cases of "fathers, husbands and other rapists and the mystique of manhood". A further clarification of the concept of "femicide" is always due to Diana Russell who, in 1992, together with Jill Radford, used it to indicate every killing of a woman committed by a man for being a woman, highlighting his nature in fact social. According to Russell's statement, "the concept of femicide extends beyond the legal definition of murder and includes those situations in which woman's death represents the outcome / consequence of misogynist social attitudes or practices". Born on November 6, 1938 in Cape Town, South Africa, Diana EH Russell grew up in a family of six with a South African father and a British mother. After graduating from the University of Cape Town, she specialized in sociology from 1957 at the London School of Economics in London and from 1961 was a researcher at Harvard university where she first studied the notion of revolution, in particular inspired by her participation in the fight against apartheid in South Africa, and then devoted himself to sociological investigations into the sexual crimes committed against women. Since 1970 he has taught women's sociology at Mills College in Oakland. Russell founded Women United Against Incest in 1993, an association that supports incest victims. He also devised the first television program in South Africa where abused women talk about their experiences.
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July 30, 2020 The naturalized American South African writer and sociologist Diana EH Russell, a feminist scholar who dedicated her life to repairing crimes against women, who popularized the term "femicide", died in Oakland, California, for respiratory failure at the age of 81. The announcement of the disappearance, which took place on Tuesday 28 July, was published by the newspaper "San Francisco Chronicle". The term "femicide" as an extreme form of gender-based violence was first used by Diana Russell in 1976 in the campaign to build an international tribunal on crimes against women, which culminated in a meeting in Brussels for denunciation of all forms of discrimination and oppression suffered by women at all latitudes. Two years earlier, in 1974, the scholar, based on research carried out in the previous decade at Harvard University, published the book "The politics of rape" (translated into Italian by Carmela Paloschi and published by Limenetimena Edizioni in 1976) in which investigated cases of "fathers, husbands and other rapists and the mystique of manhood". A further clarification of the concept of "femicide" is always due to Diana Russell who, in 1992, together with Jill Radford, used it to indicate every killing of a woman committed by a man for being a woman, highlighting his nature in fact social. According to Russell's statement, "the concept of femicide extends beyond the legal definition of murder and includes those situations in which woman's death represents the outcome / consequence of misogynist social attitudes or practices". Born on November 6, 1938 in Cape Town, South Africa, Diana EH Russell grew up in a family of six with a South African father and a British mother. After graduating from the University of Cape Town, she specialized in sociology from 1957 at the London School of Economics in London and from 1961 was a researcher at Harvard university where she first studied the notion of revolution, in particular inspired by her participation in the fight against apartheid in South Africa, and then devoted himself to sociological investigations into the sexual crimes committed against women. Since 1970 he has taught women's sociology at Mills College in Oakland. Russell founded Women United Against Incest in 1993, an association that supports incest victims. He also devised the first television program in South Africa where abused women talk about their experiences.
