Half the Sky

Sheryl WuDunn

Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide is a book by the husband-wife team of Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn.  The book posits that the oppression of women worldwide is "the paramount moral challenge" of the 21st century. 
Only when women in developing countries have equal access to education and economic opportunity will we be using all our human resources.  Half the Sky also focuses on sex trafficking, maternal mortality, sexual violence, and micro-finance. 

Carolyn See, reviewing the book in The Washington Post, said: "'Half the Sky' is a call to arms, a call for help, a call for contributions, but also a call for volunteers. It asks us to open our eyes to this enormous humanitarian issue. It does so with exquisitely crafted prose and sensationally interesting material....I really do think this is one of the most important books I have ever reviewed."

As I imagine myself or my daughters deprived of our autonomy, independence, or freedom to become our best and most productive selves, I am outraged.  That women and girls anywhere in the world are limited by societal norms created, enforced and perpetuated by men and women who are complicit in the limitation of female opportunities and achievement, I am called to action. The voice is loud and insistent.  I must do what I can do in order to amplify the voices of women worldwide.

While there is only so much we can do, we can chose at least one organization or cause that resonates  with our own spirit.  Here are two specific organizations which our family foundation supports.

Global Press Institute:  uses journalism as a development tool to educate, employ and empower women in the developing world to produce professional news coverage for the Global Press.

WePower:  promotes women's leadership, gender integration and equality at all levels of Israeli society. WePower is the only NGO in Israel which proactively focuses on advancing women to top influential positions at the highest levels of decision-making and elected positions, thus propelling social change leading to an equal civic society.

Half the Sky Movement

Half the Sky

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