Meanings
- derogatoryuncountableThe disproportionate media coverage of a missing person or similar case involving a young, white, upper-middle-class woman, contrasted with lesser coverage of males, non-white ethnicities, etc.
1 more example
The Petito case, which is still unfolding (her fiancé, with whom she’d been travelling, is believed to be in hiding) seemed like another instance of what the late journalist Gwen Ifill famously described as “missing white woman syndrome”: a hunger for stories about victims who look like Petito, to the exclusion of all others.
[2021 October 8, Helen Rosner, “The Long American History of “Missing White Woman Syndrome””, in The New Yorker, →ISSNSynonyms: missing white girl syndrome
Synonyms & antonyms
nounThe disproportionate media coverage of a missing person or similar case involving a young, white, upper-middle-class woman, contrasted with lesser coverage of males, non-white ethnicities, etc.
Origin
Coined by American journalist, television newscaster and author Gwen Ifill.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
missing white woman syndrome. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/missing%20white%20woman%20syndrome
“missing white woman syndrome.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/missing%20white%20woman%20syndrome. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “missing white woman syndrome,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/missing%20white%20woman%20syndrome.
Source: missing white woman syndrome on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.