In-Depth Audio: Are Women Killers More Wicked Than Men Murderers?

A timely listen in the age of #MeToo and feminist resurgence, this audio long-read examines how the world views women who commit violent crimes and why the narrative is inevitably different from that of male murderers.

Helena Kennedy once represented the infamous serial killer Myra Hindley, who along with Ian Brady, assaulted and murdered five children between the ages of 10 and 17 in the mid-1960s. The duo came to be known as the 'Moors Murderers' and Hindley has often been called the ‘most evil woman in Britain’.

In this audio, Helena discusses the tendency of feminists to deny women's ability to commit terrible evils. But, of course, there are women capable of as much wickedness as men—they just happen to be few and far between. Probably why in the eyes of the society, a woman killer like Hindley becomes an embodiment of all things evil – a ‘she-devil’ of sorts.

Taking her real-life experience with a woman serial killer forward, Helena talks about other cases of women murderers to examine the complex relationship between sex, guilt, power and punishment and how these elements “charge the atmosphere” at the trials of women, and sometimes, undermine the proceedings.

The audio then delves deeper into the stories of women who are viewed as evil today: those involved in extremist Islamist groups. Though they illicit visceral responses, there are many hues to these tales – violent misogyny and terrible abuse being just two.

This is a rather grisly listen, not recommended for early morning runs! But it is an important one too, which raises several questions about our notions of women as the ‘nurturing sex’, why we intrinsically feel differently about women consciously committing evil, and how the persistence of these narratives impacts women’s movements in general.