Pointing out the number of women in this kind of situation suggests that women are somehow intrinsically more precious or defenceless or less deserving of (say) being killed in a stampede than men – something that we should be especially sad or shocked about.
Eilis herself is an interesting character, less defenceless and more troubled than she initially seems, and the novel uncovers the "dark, uncertain" areas within her with a very light touch.
It is no longer acceptable to beat your wife, but on the question of larger, more powerful people hitting smaller, defenceless, people, the law continues to let down the most defenceless.
I wanted to catch them going to and from work, and felt that by sitting there on my own, defenceless, they were more likely to stop.
Notably, the less frequently a silverfish replenishes its chemical profile (e.g., by failure to locate defenceless callows), the more difficult it becomes to remain unrecognised and to seek contact with the host ants.
The environment of a group such as Islamic State, created around a cult of extreme violence and a worldview that dehumanises all outside the organisation, can quickly turn an individual from a misguided insurgent into a pitiless terrorist killer, more than happy to execute a defenceless hostage with a knife, on camera.
An armed population is simply more difficult to exterminate than one that is defenceless.
He added: "The murder of any human being is always a tragedy, the murder of a defenceless child of any age, the more so.
But what was initially just another peaceful meeting in the fields ended in tragedy, as a sword-wielding cavalry charged into the defenceless crowd, leaving 15 dead and more than 600 injured.
