Running head: HALF THE SKY 1
Book Review: Half the Sky
Kayla Slate
Pennsylvania State University, Berks Campus
HALF THE SKY 2
Book Review: Half the Sky
Half the Sky is written by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. Kristof and WuDunn are a married couple who are journalists. They have won many awards in journalism including a
Pulitzer Prize, Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Lifetime Achievement, George Polk, and
Overseas Press Club awards. Kristof and WuDunn have a history of journalism in Asia. Kristof worked in Hong Kong, Beijing, and Tokyo as bureau chief and as associate managing editor.
WuDunn worked as a foreign correspondent in Asia. Their journalism background is present in
Half the Sky. Their book exposes the oppression of women worldwide. Half the Sky shares stories of rape, maternal mortality, trafficking, and prostitution women have to live within other countries. Kristof and WuDunn share stories of women and families from Africa and Asia. The purpose of Half the Sky is to motivate readers to take action on the oppression of women and gender inequality around the world. While the authors are persuasive and educate their audience on the issues women face in other countries, they mainly focus on African and Asian countries.
Due to the fact they only focus on a few countries, they do not achieve the global perspective they intended.
Kristof and WuDunn expose tragic and gruesome stories of what women and girls have been through in other countries. They also reveal how common these experiences are. This is because there is a cultural or social value to them. The chapters in Half the Sky are broken into two sections. The first section is the authors’ report of experiences women go through in one country. During the first section, they focus on a few cases related to the topic of the chapter.
Half the Sky begins by introducing the audience to Meena. Meena is a woman from India who was kidnapped and forced into prostitution when she was 9 years old. Forced prostitution is HALF THE SKY 3 common in India. Visiting prostitutes is a way for men to relace sexual desires in India. Due to the views of prostitution in India, their society turns a blind eye to it. However, if a woman is in the upper class and is forced into prostitution, the police will help her and arrest the brothel members. When Meena was forced into prostitution, the brothel owners beat her until she stopped resisting becoming a prostitute. The brothel’s owner, Ainul, would not let Meena shed a tear during a beating. Meena eventually escaped the brothel and went to the police for help. The police did not care because she was a girl from the lower class. A neighbor of Meena heard the brothel’s plans to murder her. Meena ran away to a different town to escape the brothel and their plans. Meena and a man, Kuduz, fell in love and got married. Even after she escaped the brothel and got married, she cannot walk in the village without people glaring at her. This story featuring
Meena is very common in India and other countries.
The second part of the chapter is where they report on something that has addressed the issue women deal with in that country. Some of the things they report on during the second part of the chapter are people, organizations, hospitals, and education programs that have addressed an issue of the oppression of women. The second part of Meena’s chapter reports on a school in
Washington state. The school began a campaign to raise money to build a school in Cambodia.
The campaign for the school stressed the importance of education for girls. They believe education is the most effective way of preventing girls from being forced into sex trafficking like
Meena was. The school’s campaign raised enough money to build a school in Cambodia. The students from Overlake, the school that raised the money, traveled to Cambodia to see what they built, they were shocked by the poverty and enthusiasm of the citizens. Overlake established a relationship with the school they built in Cambodia. This experience was life-changing to the HALF THE SKY 4 student at both schools. While this campaign was very successful, there are others with more complications and have failed. When the students from Overlake visited the new school, they met a young girl who had trouble making it to school because of harassment from men and the distance. The students from Overlake donated a bicycle to her. The young girl let on older woman borrow her bike but the woman sold the bike. Without transportation, the young girl dropped out of school. The theme of education is present throughout the book. The authors argue educating Americans about the challenges women face in other cultures. They also argue education is the most effective way of preventing women from enduring rape, trafficking, abuse, and other inequalities in their own country.
The authors of Half the Sky report on several different women in Africa and Asia. Their reports persuade their audience to become involved in the movement to end the oppression of women in these countries. By reporting on women and their experiences in other countries, they are also educating their readers. The contents of their book are topics that are typically hidden in
American education. There are very few exceptions where this oppression is openly discussed in schools like it was at Overlake.
While Kristof and DuWunn are very detailed in the stories of girls, women, and families they chose to share with their audience, the majority of stories come from Africa and Asia. The purpose of this book was to provide a global perspective of the oppression and inequality women experience around the world. To achieve the desired global perspective, the book would have benefitted from included stories of women in other countries in Europe. The book would have also benefited from a chapter on the oppression and inequality women experience in America.
Because the authors did not include a chapter on the oppression and inequality women and girls HALF THE SKY 5 experience in America, the audience may believe oppression and inequality is not in America.
Women in America experience rape, maternal mortality, trafficking, and prostitution. However, it may not mirror the oppression and inequality of women in other countries experience.
Half the Sky could have benefitted from suggesting more solutions to reduce the oppression and inequality women experience. The authors stressed the importance of education in places such as Africa and Asia. However, education may not reach the majority of the population because the people who are in school are typically young. Therefore, older children, teenagers, adults, and elders are not receiving the critical information taught in school or have a place that will try to keep them from experiencing the oppression and inequality in their country.
Another reason why the authors should have provided more solutions to education is that there may be more than one way to address these issues. While the authors stressed education in other countries, they also stressed education about these issues in the education system in America.
However, the issues of oppression and inequality Americans face are not typically taught in schools. There is an issue whether America teaches students about the oppression and inequality in its own society to try to decrease it or to teach about the issues other countries face to try to help decrease the amount of oppression and inequality their women face.
Kristof and WuDunn provided detailed stories of the oppression of women, and girls experience in Asia and Africa. While they revealed the issues of oppression and inequality in these countries, they failed to reveal these issues in Europe and their own country, America.
Although Half the Sky has its limitations, the authors do a great job of explaining the severity of these issues. Their style of writing makes the audience feel the pain these women have experiences. They also motivate their audience to want to do something about oppression and HALF THE SKY 6 inequality. I would recommend Half the Sky to students throughout high school and college. I would recommend Half the Sky to this population because they should have a better understanding of the issues other people face around the world. I would also recommend this book to people working with many cultures and those who want to travel because this book can teach them some of the stories or events they encounter.