Key Concepts in Demography, Feminism, and Social Movements

Taboo

Banned for reasons of morality or poor taste or because it constitutes a risk.

Decolonial feminism

Challenges dominant white, Western, patriarchal, and capitalist ways of knowing and being and encourages space for other (including precolonial) ways.

Neo-Malthusian

Emphasizes high birth rates and overpopulation as dangerous; builds on an older theory that if left unchecked, humans would reproduce faster than the food supply, resulting in famine and chaos.

Pronatalism

Policies meant to encourage women to have more children and increase the population.

Secularism

The principle of separating religion from government and public institutions, ensuring that laws and policies are based on civic rather than religious authority. Separation of church & state.

Demography

The study of births, aging/death, and migration to understand the changing size, composition, and distribution of human populations.

Fertility Rate

The average number of live births per woman ages 15-49.

Intersex

People born with genitals, chromosomes, and/or hormones that do not fit with a male/female sex binary.

Standard of civilization

A means of measuring a country's or culture's progress towards becoming modern—for example, by looking at indicators of gender equality or LGBTQ rights.

Las Libres

An abortion collective in Mexico composed of 300-400 groups around the country that provide self-administered abortion pills as well as guidance on their use and emotional support.

Green Wave movement

The massive protests organized by Argentinian women in 2018 to demand legal abortion, which inspired similar movements across Latin America.

Fertility gap

The global trend in which women on average fall short of their stated ideal family size (that is, they have fewer children than their ideal number).

Demographic Doom Loop

A self-reinforcing cycle in which population decline triggers xenophobic backlash to immigration, fueling far-right nationalist policies that cut social spending and drive further emigration of young people—leaving fewer workers to support an aging population.

The Great Replacement Theory

The far-right nationalist argument that white people and western identity are under siege from an influx of non-white immigrants.

Progressive's Dilemma

Liberals value open society, equality, diversity, and immigration, but immigration can unintentionally trigger support for the far-right, which opposes economic redistribution and gender equality.

Genocidal rape

Using rape as a form of ethnic cleansing against people of a specific ethnic, racial or religious group.

Opportunistic rape

When individuals take advantage of the breakdown of law & order, family, and community in war to commit rape with impunity.

Infibulation

The most comprehensive form of female genital cutting, in which the external genitalia are removed, and the edges of the vulva are sutured together.