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They don’t go to school. They don’t see a doctor. Displaced by war, violence, and poverty, they don’t even have a place to call home. Some have been mutilated; others, forced into prostitution. And now, despite their circumstances—and largely because of them—many of these women are making a difference. Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn’s new book, Half the Sky (Alfred A. Knopf, $27.95), tells grim yet optimistic stories of “amazing people doing extraordinary things,” says Kristof. The couple—he’s a New York Times columnist, she was a reporter there—are intent on hooking up those who want to help with those who need help the most.
Why did you write the book?Nicholas Kristof: These women blow me away. They became my heroes, and I wanted to write about them. The best way to defeat poverty and extremism isn't by giving countries F-16 fighters but by helping them educate and empower women. That’s the message we wanted to convey in our book.
Where did the book’s title come from?
Sheryl WuDunn: It’s from a saying of Mao Zedong’s: “Women hold up half the sky.” It was a theme that we were well aware of when we lived in China. Women were slowly being absorbed into the workforce, but there was still a favoritism [toward males].
You think readers and the victims themselves can make a difference?
NK: Once people realize that there are 13-year-old girls who are kidnapped off the street and locked up in brothels, or that women routinely die in childbirth just because they don’t have incredibly cheap medications, then you begin a process of change.
SW: Women who have survived sex trafficking know the terrain and know what is needed to change it. A Westerner may not understand the issue. And sex trafficking in Cambodia is not necessarily the same as sex trafficking in India.
You tell a story about a girl from Zimbabwe who longed to go to school but couldn’t. She did her brother’s homework because he wasn’t interested.
NK: Tererai Trent has finished graduate school in the U.S. She’s writing her dissertation on AIDS programs in Africa. It was a woman from Heifer International going to her village and saying, “You can have dreams.” A little lubrication, a few drops of oil, and then the system starts working.
What role do men play in changing the landscape?
NK: There’s a misapprehension sometimes that the problem is men and that men are the enemy. In fact, the enemy tends to be repressive attitudes that emerge in cultures and are reflected in both men and women. Often the worst oppressor of all is the mother-in-law.
SW: Or the mother.
NK: Women often approve of wife beating about as much as men do. One needs to build change working with both men and women. If it comes to a gender war, that undermines progress.
What does education do?
NK: It’s a virtuous circle: When you begin to educate girls, you create employment opportunities for women, and that helps the economy and creates a society that cares about women’s health. It then invests more in children’s education. Because the economy is more robust, because women are involved, it tends to hold extremism at bay. That’s one reason Bangladesh is doing better than Pakistan.
Are your three kids converts to the idea of activism?
NK: They are fascinated by what they see. We started a school in Cambodia ourselves and inaugurated it in December. We took them there.
SW: And they all made a little speech.
NK: It teaches them the value of money—when they see kids who have to drop out of school because they don’t have the amount of money that here they might spend on a sandwich.
Action Plan
Kristof and WuDunn’s suggestions:
- Stay informed at womensenews.org and worldpulse.com.
- Offer support through globalgiving.org or kiva.org.
- “Teach your children that not all kids have iPods,” they write. The couple suggest sponsoring a girl through Plan International or World Vision.
- Write to Congress about education and health care for women. (“If leaders smell votes, they will follow.”)
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