The capitalist system causes high rates of femicide, according to a false narrative promoted also in Romania. This narrative ignores statistical data in the field and historical realities.
NEWS: “Resilient necrocapitalism and the zombie genre of representations of current dystopias are persistent in their political purpose in producing changes in the social order to benefit plutocracies around the world.
It is through a thanatopolitical lens that we should view the successive losses of life, and this zombie genre has come to represent a dystopia that, for political purposes, is intended to produce changes in societies which have tolerated the violent deaths of women.
This article focuses on contemporary Greece and proposes a theoretical framework where femicide is understood as a social phenomenon that reflects a global gendered necropolitical logic which equals genocide.
Such theoretical assemblages have to be situated within intersectional imperatives and tacitly as the result of the capitalist terror state performed in an expansive and direct immediate death, exacerbated by the lingering slow social death of the welfare state.
The article contends that the scripted hetero-patriarchal social order of the necrocapitalist state poses a unique political threat to societies.
With the silence of the complicity of the state, what is necessary is the creation and spread of new political knowledge and new social movements as resilient political tactics of resistance.
This article foregrounds an ecofeminist perspective on these issues and considers ways through which new pedagogies of hope can counter the gendered necropolitics of contemporary capitalism in Greece”, states an ecofeminist study published in 2024 which claims that femicide is caused by capitalism—an idea increasingly circulated on social media and at feminist protests or demonstrations against domestic and gender-based violence.
After the study appeared, the idea began circulating in Romania as well and entered public attention after, at a demonstration against violence against women, a participant carried a sign reading: “FEMICIDUL E SIMPTOMUL CAPITALISMUL E CAUZA.”
NARRATIVES: 1. Capitalism kills. 2. Femicide is a product of capitalism.
PURPOSE: The goal is to eliminate hierarchies and capitalism, since it is believed that this would eliminate the “domination and exploitation of women,” who would no longer be treated as mere “resources” or “commodities.”
Capitalism prolongs life, it does not shorten it
WHY THE NARRATIVES ARE FALSE: Capitalism is an economic system that cannot kill in the absence of abuses by leaders or poor decisions made by people, whether due to incompetence or to weak institutions. As a counterexample, the socialist utopia, seemingly the ideal world, was put into practice by abusers who installed the odious criminal system represented by communism (the exact opposite of capitalism), which literally killed in the USSR and continues to kill today in brutal dictatorships such as, for example, North Korea.
Moreover, capitalism (especially when mixed with solid and rational social policies) raises quality of life, life expectancy and community prosperity, realities supported by statistics that also contribute to improving the station of women. This is primarily the case in countries that combine capitalism with liberal democracies and are considered among the most developed and prosperous in the world.
Countries with capitalist economies therefore have higher life expectancy, access to nutrition, technology and high-standard medical care. One example of improved living conditions in recent years, correlated with free markets and economic freedom (capitalism), is East Asia.
On the other hand, medicine stimulated by technological advancement and artificial intelligence has led to competition and private investment, while cancer treatments, antibiotics and vaccines have developed more rapidly, thus saving lives more efficiently in capitalist economies.
At the opposite end, in state-planned (anti-capitalist) economies, severe shortages almost always appear within communities, famine occurs (see Romania during Ceaușescu’s communist period), while industries often collapse or require state support.
It should also be noted that in developed capitalist countries, significant progress has been made toward achieving gender equality, while efforts in this direction continue. Women have long enjoyed the same legal rights as men, and more and more women now occupy important positions in society — in politics, business, civil society, and so on. Although much remains to be done even in these countries, the claim that capitalist systems are defined by a “hetero-patriarchal social order” is far-fetched.
Developed capitalist countries have the lowest femicide rates. At the opposite pole are African, South American and post-communist states.
The most recent 2024 report elaborated by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and UN Women, published on the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, shows that the number of femicides is increasing worldwide:
Around 50,000 women and girls worldwide were killed by their partners or other family members (including fathers, mothers, uncles and brothers), meaning that, on average, 137 women or girls are killed every day by someone in their own family.
The report shows that most femicides occurred in Africa, the most underdeveloped continent in the world (3 victims per 100,000 women), followed by South America and Oceania (1.5 and 1.4 victims per 100,000, respectively).
Therefore, Africa recorded the highest rate of femicides in which the victim and perpetrator were in an intimate or family relationship, while Europe recorded the lowest rate, 0.5 per 100,000 women.
Moreover, states where capitalism is well established and combined with sound social policies are those where femicide rates are also the lowest: the Nordic countries, Western Europe, Canada and Japan.
High femicide rates are found, however, in the former Soviet space, dominated for decades by communism, that is, precisely the opposite of capitalism:
Russia tops the list alongside South American states, followed by Azerbaijan, Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine and the Baltic States.
For instance, according to data for 2019, in Russia’s Far East the femicide rate per 100,000 women reached 4, in other regions of the country 7, and in 2020 the femicide rate reached 12 in one of Russia’s regions. By comparison, UNODC data indicate that in Spain the femicide rate was 0.5, and in Germany 1.1.
Amnesty International and the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women also report the existence of honor killings in Albania, Afghanistan and Turkey.
Ecofeminism and Marxist Feminism, radical political currents that challenge the capitalist state
BACKGROUND: Messages such as “Femicide is the symptom. Capitalism is the cause” or “Unity in the struggle against capitalism” have been increasingly circulated in recent years in Romania, including in protests parallel to economic or political themes.
Ecofeminism is an ideological doctrine derived from feminism that considers the mindset that justifies the exploitation, marginalization or control of women to be the same mindset that justifies the exploitation and destruction of nature and the environment or reduces them to mere sources of profit.
The doctrine emerged in the late 1970s and gained momentum in the 1980s, becoming more visible in Romania over the past few years. Marxist-type ecofeminism (which has several branches) positions itself against capitalism and considers it patriarchal, exploiting women and their resources, as well as natural resources.
Marxist feminism and Marxist ecofeminism oppose hierarchies, patriarchy (male-dominated societies which views women as subordinate to men), the exploitation of environmental resources and capitalism, which they consider the main cause of femicide.
The central idea supporting the goal of eliminating capitalism is that femicide violently reflects the gender hierarchy through which capitalism manages to maintain differences in power, status and cheap labor (women, who are also unpaid for domestic labor).
The narratives promoted thus claim that the capitalist system is based on patriarchy and uses it to maintain social order, while women are made vulnerable through poorly paid jobs or unpaid domestic labor, which exposes them to violence from partners on whom they become dependent.
Moreover, Marxist feminists argue that cooking, cleaning, child-rearing, elder care and so on are in fact the “hidden engine” of capitalism.
Then, according to Marxist feminism, capitalism produces economic insecurity through unemployment, low wages and unstable conditions, which increases tensions within families and exposes women to violence from their partners.
Femicide remains a serious issue worldwide
GRAIN OF TRUTH: Even in capitalist countries, femicide remains a real and extremely serious problem and represents the most dangerous and alarming form of domestic violence / violence against women.
In Romania, the phenomenon of femicide (that is, crimes committed by partners or former partners or the killing of women simply because they are women) reported a significant increase in 2025, primarily due to the authorities’ lack of response or incompetence, as well as overly lenient legislation compared to the gravity and scale of these acts of violence.
Femicide and domestic violence also surged in Romania during the COVID-19 pandemic (starting March 2020), when people were in lockdown and, against the backdrop of uncertainty, fear and heightened anxiety, partner aggression reached alarming and often tragic levels.
