Gendercide in SF
Gendercide is the deliberate destruction of all the members of one sex/gender of a species.
It has been portrayed in SF a number of times; also, many post-gendercidal societies have been shown; see men-only worlds and women-only worlds. Sex wars might be intended to effect gendercide.
Gendercide should be distinguished from (a) real-life situations in which one sex or another is disproportionately favored (i.e., sex-selective infanticide or abortion); the intent must be to eliminate a gender; and (b) accidental plagues that happen to be sex-selective.
List of works featuring gendercide
- "The Last Flight of Dr. Ain" (1969) by James Tiptree, Jr. (about the distribution of the virus)
- The Female Man by Joanna Russ (one of the societies features a gender war, in which the men have killed all women on their side)
- The White Plague (1982) by Frank Herbert (the man who did it, and the aftermath)
- Y, The Last Man (2002) by Brian K. Vaughan (largely about the aftermath, and discovering the mystery of what happened)