if you want to catch a lot of rain, put out a lot of teacups...
Bookshelf: "Half the Sky, Turning Oppression into Opportunity fo Women Worldwide"
I read this book and kept thinking how it's exactly what 5ForFairness is all about. The authors, Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, are husband and wife, Pulitzer Prize winning journalists. He writes a column for the New York Times. She is a former business editor for the paper.
Their book lays out the plight of females in developing countries, which they see as a humanitarian crisis that needs a lot more attention. The title comes from a Chinese proverb, “Women hold up half the sky.” Their point is, let's start acting like we believe it!
Traveling through Asia, Africa and the Middle East the authors spent time with girls and women whose life experiences only confirm the disturbing statistics the authors report throughout their book.
In Cambodia they meet a teenage girl caught up in sex trafficking who manages to escape but gets lured back to the brothel because she is now a social outcast at home and she has become addicted to the drugs her keepers at the brothel supply her.
In Cameroon, Africa Kristof and WuDunn witness a pregnant woman's death during childbirth after her doctor refuses to perform needed surgery without pay. The family says it can’t pay.
In Afghanistan, India and China the authors learn that many females are treated as “discounted humans.” The young and uneducated are the most vulnerable.
“It appears that more girls have been killed in the last fifty years, precisely because they were girls, than men were killed in all the wars of the twentieth century,” Kristof and WuDunn write of a situation they consider to be “routine gendercide.”
These hard facts would be more than a reader could take, but for the many inspiring stories of adversity turned to social activism that the authors include in their book.
They spend time with Mukhtar Mai in rural Pakistan. She was gang raped in her village and had the temerity to report the crime to the police who arrested the criminals. The case got a lot of attention and Pakistan’s president at the time, Pervez Musharraf sent Mukhtar more than $8,000 in compensation.
She used the money to found a school for girls, where she also learned to read and write. She also began speaking publicly about violence against women especially in rural areas.
In Somaliland, Africa, Edna Adan, a retired worker with the World Health Organization, raised the funds and built the Edna Adan Maternity Hospital after learning that the maternal mortality rate in her homeland is among the highest in the world.
Websites for many such programs and for larger foundations are listed in an appendix to the book. Kristof and WuDunn plainly state that they want to enlist us all as “social entrepreneurs” and help raise females from oppression to empowered achievements.
The authors are well known as humanitarians with a head for business. Their book is filled with examples of how empowering women is good for global commerce.
In Guangdong Province, China, for example, the economy is booming thanks to, “the girl effect,” they write. Eighty percent of workers in the local factories are females who produce toys and clothes for American stores. With so many women earning an income for the first time, Guangdong’s economy has changed. The women now tend to marry and bear children at a later age. They bank some of their savings and pay for the education of younger family members.
“Evidence has mounted that helping women can be a successful poverty-fighting strategy anywhere in the world, not just the booming economies of Eastern Asia,” Kristof and WuDunn write.
The United Nations and the World Bank noticed the same potential in the early 1990s. “Investment in girls’ education may well be the highest-return investment available in the developing world,” wrote Lawrence Summers when he was chief economist of the World Bank in the early 1990s.
More recently the United Nations Development Program issued a supporting statement. “Women’s empowerment helps raise economic productivity and reduce infant mortality,” it states. “It contributes to improved health and nutrition. It increases the chances of education for the next generation.”
Their book lays out the plight of females in developing countries, which they see as a humanitarian crisis that needs a lot more attention. The title comes from a Chinese proverb, “Women hold up half the sky.” Their point is, let's start acting like we believe it!
Traveling through Asia, Africa and the Middle East the authors spent time with girls and women whose life experiences only confirm the disturbing statistics the authors report throughout their book.
In Cambodia they meet a teenage girl caught up in sex trafficking who manages to escape but gets lured back to the brothel because she is now a social outcast at home and she has become addicted to the drugs her keepers at the brothel supply her.
In Cameroon, Africa Kristof and WuDunn witness a pregnant woman's death during childbirth after her doctor refuses to perform needed surgery without pay. The family says it can’t pay.
In Afghanistan, India and China the authors learn that many females are treated as “discounted humans.” The young and uneducated are the most vulnerable.
“It appears that more girls have been killed in the last fifty years, precisely because they were girls, than men were killed in all the wars of the twentieth century,” Kristof and WuDunn write of a situation they consider to be “routine gendercide.”
These hard facts would be more than a reader could take, but for the many inspiring stories of adversity turned to social activism that the authors include in their book.
They spend time with Mukhtar Mai in rural Pakistan. She was gang raped in her village and had the temerity to report the crime to the police who arrested the criminals. The case got a lot of attention and Pakistan’s president at the time, Pervez Musharraf sent Mukhtar more than $8,000 in compensation.
She used the money to found a school for girls, where she also learned to read and write. She also began speaking publicly about violence against women especially in rural areas.
In Somaliland, Africa, Edna Adan, a retired worker with the World Health Organization, raised the funds and built the Edna Adan Maternity Hospital after learning that the maternal mortality rate in her homeland is among the highest in the world.
Websites for many such programs and for larger foundations are listed in an appendix to the book. Kristof and WuDunn plainly state that they want to enlist us all as “social entrepreneurs” and help raise females from oppression to empowered achievements.
The authors are well known as humanitarians with a head for business. Their book is filled with examples of how empowering women is good for global commerce.
In Guangdong Province, China, for example, the economy is booming thanks to, “the girl effect,” they write. Eighty percent of workers in the local factories are females who produce toys and clothes for American stores. With so many women earning an income for the first time, Guangdong’s economy has changed. The women now tend to marry and bear children at a later age. They bank some of their savings and pay for the education of younger family members.
“Evidence has mounted that helping women can be a successful poverty-fighting strategy anywhere in the world, not just the booming economies of Eastern Asia,” Kristof and WuDunn write.
The United Nations and the World Bank noticed the same potential in the early 1990s. “Investment in girls’ education may well be the highest-return investment available in the developing world,” wrote Lawrence Summers when he was chief economist of the World Bank in the early 1990s.
More recently the United Nations Development Program issued a supporting statement. “Women’s empowerment helps raise economic productivity and reduce infant mortality,” it states. “It contributes to improved health and nutrition. It increases the chances of education for the next generation.”
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