Diana Russell was one of the first feminists who, as early as the mid-1970s, discovered and proposed the term femicide. Considering that the general term "homicide" is inadequate and misleading, Russell adopts the term femicide to describe, among other things, crimes against women motivated by misogynistic and sexist reasons, when the motive for violence is characterized by a sense of ownership and/or superiority over females.

What is femicide? When does the term appear? What do the dictionaries of the 19th century say? When is it proposed in the feminist movement and how is it initially addressed? What political characteristics can this concept acquire? How does the discussion about femicide evolve and what exactly do the proposed definitions state? What problems do the different approaches present and what convergences can be made? How is the term addressed in India, in Latin American countries, and in the Western world? What types of femicide exist? These are some of the topics that Diana Russell addresses in the text presented here, trying to contribute in her own way to the discussions surrounding the concept of femicide and to highlight the significant social and political impact that the adoption of the term can have on individuals and social groups.

She insists on her own definition: the murder of women by men because they are women. In the appendix of the edition, Colombian Doris Lammus Canavate argues that everything happening to our bodies is imbued with a politics related to both the functioning of societies and the methods by which power is exercised and reproduced. Following the thoughts of Michel Foucault and various feminists, such as Russell and Lagarde, the author treats femicide as a form of sexist terrorism, while also paying particular attention to the patriarchal and oppressive organization of modern societies and the ideological mechanisms that sustain and reproduce it.