Gender and the Death Penalty: who said chivalry was dead?

After both the Boston Bomber and Muhammad Morsi in Egypt were sentenced to death last week I began to think about whether I had ever heard of a woman being sentenced to death in the Western world. The substantial racial and class biases within death penalty prosecution has been exposed by many scholars but interrogation of the role of gender in deciding whether someone should live or die is less prevalent. In this case, as with many crime issues, gender roles favour women in that there have historically been no more than 2% women on death row. Indeed, in 2014 there were 57 women on death row in Texas, 1.88% of the overall 3,035. Women are also more likely to be able to appeal their sentence and since 1990 only 53 women have been executed by the United States. The rest have presumably been able to appeal their sentences. On the surface this may seem like a positive thing for women and a detrimentally negative thing for men however, the motivation for these decisions is rooted in traditional gender roles that continue to oppress women and men differently and disproportionately.

In regards to crime, women are usually seen as victims of persuasion, vulnerable or emotionally unstable whereas men are perceived to be inherently violent. We can see that these two stereotypes rely upon one and other in that they are constructed in direct opposition. Investigation into crime and gender speaks volumes about how gender is perceived more generally so for example women are often spared execution if they are mothers because they have dependents. Men who are executed are fathers too and these assumptions perpetuate the myth that women should be the primary care-giver whilst men the breadwinner. Similarly, women may be let off because they are considered to have been coerced or forced into committing a crime by a man and whilst this may sometimes be the case, judges may be quick to jump to these conclusions that then reinforce ideas that men hold power over women. Therefore whilst judges are influenced by perceptions of gender in the first place, their decisions also often serve to reify patriarchal assumptions about the behaviour of women and men in the public and private spheres. Additionally women should evidently not be held less accountable to men for their actions, equality means individuals being judged independent of their gender. Feminists must acknowledge that emancipation from gender roles may not always be better for women but that it is fair and just.

What we can see here, is that like much of the West’s constitutional frameworks, the death penalty is rooted in prejudice and discrimination on grounds of race, class and gender. In my own opinion the death penalty is never just but as it remains widespread in parts of the United States, China, Iran and many other countries worldwide a person’s gender, race or class should in no way determine whether they live or die.

Women and the Death Penalty: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/women-and-death-penalty

N, Shatz & S, Shatz (2011) Chivalry is Not Dead: Gender and the Death Penalty: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1767508