Half the sky: Turning oppression into opportunity for women worldwide La mitad del cielo: Opresión hacía oportunidad de las mujeres en todo el mundo

1. Año 3, vol. V agosto-diciembre 2010/Year 3, vol. V August-December 2010
www.somecrimnl.es.tl 1
Fecha de recepción: 08/04/2010
Fecha de aceptación: 01/05/2010
HALF THE SKY: TURNING OPPRESSION INTO OPPORTUNITY FOR
WOMEN WORLDWIDE
LA MITAD DEL CIELO: OPRESIÓN HACÍA OPORTUNIDAD DE LAS
MUJERES EN TODO EL MUNDO
Dr. Edward J. Schauer
College of Juvenile Justice
ejschauer@pvamu.edu
Estados Unidos de América
By: Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009, pp.
XXII-294) (ISBN 978-0-307-26714-6)
Half the Sky lays out an agenda for the world's women in the attempt to stem three
major ubiquitous, international abuses: First, sex trafficking and forced prostitution;
second, gender-based violence including honor killings and mass rape; and third,
maternal mortality, which claims one woman per minute worldwide. The first two
abuses listed above are serious international crimes which most nations of the world
have agreed to aggressively prevent, identify, prosecute, and punish (Protocol to
Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and
Children, Supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational
Organized Crime, UNGA Res. 55/25, of the year 2000). Signatory states have also
agreed to rescue and offer aftercare to victims of these crimes.
The co-authors of Half the Sky, Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn won a
Pulitzer Prize for their journalistic coverage of the 1989 Tiananmen protests in China.
They were the first married couple to win a Pulitzer Prize in journalism. Nicholas

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Kristof, an American journalist, authors an Op-Ed column for The New York Times;
and is universally known for illuminating human rights abuses around the globe.
WuDunn an investment advisor, focuses upon philanthropy. They have also won a
George Polk Award and an Overseas Press Club Award. Kristof and WuDunn have
coauthored two previous books about Asia, Thunder from the East: Portrait of a Rising
Asia (2000) and China Wakes: The Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power (1994).
Kristof was named an honorary African by Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South
Africa for his courageous journalistic coverage of conflicts on the African continent.
For commentary on human rights issues, he won a second Pulitzer Prize and several
other national and international awards. Extremely successful in the profession of
international journalism and also in human rights activism, Kristof graduated Phi
Beta Kappa from Harvard College, and then attended Oxford University on a Rhodes
Scholarship where he majored in law and graduated with first-class honors.
The first Asian-American to win a Pulitzer Prize, Sheryl WuDunn worked as an
international loan officer at Goldman Sachs and Bankers Trust and has been an
executive at The New York Times and worked as a New York Times correspondent in
Beijing. A graduate of Cornell University, WuDunn received her two master’s degrees
from Harvard Business School and Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School.
The central moral challenge of the 19th Century was slavery; whereas, in the
20th Century, totalitarianism served as the critical moral challenge. Kristof and
WuDunn amass evidence to convince that, in the developing world, gender inequality
will serve as the chief moral struggle of the 21st Century. Certainly, the authors
supply current and abundant evidence that around the world, women and girls suffer
an extremely high incidence of maltreatment and exploitation.
From their experience and research, the authors draw examples of the
victimization of women largely from Africa and Asia. Here, in struggles against
horrible experiences, we meet extraordinary women who are actively fighting back
against cruelty and oppression. The repression of women and girls may be official,
cultural, or informal; but the victimization is common and ubiquitous. The authors
make a special point to remind the readers that while the women may have been
victimized, they do not necessarily remain victims: Women dominated and subjugated
often must be appreciated as survivors rather than as victims, as captains of their own
destinies, and often as agents of change.
Emphasized by the authors in every chapter of Half the Sky, is the theme that,
The best way to fight poverty and extremism is to educate and empower women
and girls (http://www.halftheskymovement.org/). Through their research, Kristof and
WuDunn have found that the best way to allow women and girls to take control of
their destinies worldwide (thus to minimize their exploitation) is to create the cultural
support for women's education, to make education available for women, and to
encourage women and girls to take advantage of educational opportunities.
While HALF THE SKY should be considered required reading for every student
of criminal justice, criminology, women's issues, and human rights; it is also essential
reading for all citizens of the globe. The stories of inspiration and courage are
amazing; and therefore the book tends to draw students into wanting to read to learn
more about this critical subject. Written so that a person with an 8th grade
vocabulary can easily read to understand the book, the authors have compiled a work
which is essential to the study of the victimization of, and the survival of exploited
women and girls. HALF THE SKY is widely acclaimed as the definitive book on the

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international victimization of women and girls: It should be accepted as the seminal
work for further research in this critical area of human pathos and survival.