Ranier Ford

Half the Sky Seminar Prep

Half the Sky is a book written by Pulizter Prize winners, Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl
WuDunn. The book focuses on the oppression of women and girls in the developing world.
Throughout the story are horrifying, yet inspiring recounts of what women from Africa to Asia
experienced. There have been pervasive human rights violations occurring right under the
worlds nose, and this book is finally revealing untold truths.

The beginning of Half the Sky was a shock to me. When a global statistic regarding the
abuse of girls was established in the Introduction, I was unnerved at the fact that I had never
heard about this before. In the last 50 years, more girls were killed than the total amount of men
who died in all of the wars of the twentieth century. The number of girls killed in routine
gendercide is higher than the total number of those who were killed in all of the genocides of the
twentieth century (pg. xvii).

It scares me to think that in a developing country, a girl just like me could be suffering
unimaginable tortures. What scares me even more though, is the fact that the outside world has
not stepped in to prevent it. I like to imagine that there is a more prevalent reason that the world
has not intervened than the fact that it is women suffering. And as much as I wish I could tell
myself this, I dont think that is the case.

A section of this book that utterly disgusts me is the chapter that focuses on Maternal Morality.
On page 98 there is a excerpt that reads:
Maternal care is particularly neglected, never receiving adequate funding. For the 2009
fiscal year, President George W. Bush actually proposed an 18 percent cut in USAID
spending for maternal and child care to just $370 million, or about $1.20 per American
per year
Right now the amount we Americans spend on maternal childbirth is
equivalent to less than one twentieth of 1 percent of the amount we spend on our
military.
This section makes me question where the line of a countrys moral code is. It is not only
America doing this, every country in the world that has the provisions to do so should be helping
save the lives of women and girls. At what point are we as a world going to wake up and see the
blatant gender discrimination and realize that we should have helped sooner. When it is too
late? Another thing that this makes me wonder though, is what if it were boys and men enduring
this? Would we still be standing on the sidelines watching? Or would it reveal that even in a
progressive country, there are undertones of gender discrimination.

I tend to get drawn into psychologic aspects of the choices that humans make, so i was
not able to stop wondering what made it acceptable for women to be the gender that is
subjected to torturous acts and discrimination. My personal belief is that it is a system of
instilling fear into somebody more powerful. A common theme in Half the Sky is female
empowerment. When women are educated, they use the knowledge to produce good. They
provide for their families as well as others. They work and can support themselves and I believe
that is what men are often afraid of. If the woman loses the need to be dependent on a man
because she can support herself, he no longer has leverage to get her to oblige to what he
wants. He will insert dominance and abuse as means to showing whos boss and prevent her
from becoming educated.
I find strong similarities to bullies in school and men who are abusing there physical power and
means of mental abuse. Often times a bully chooses their victim based off of their own


insecurities. Based on the examples in the books, I can see this happening between men and
women.

Overall I was impressed with Half the Sky and the message that it is spreading, there
were times when I found it difficult to read. It seemed to be endless versions of the same
general story throughout the whole title. If I was the person editing it, I would absolutely keep
the girls stories in there because I think it is invaluable to get first hand perspectives, but I
would limit the amount of stories inserted. It got overwhelming to read such disconcerting stories
paired with also seemingly hopeless statistics throughout the whole of the book.

Opening Questions:
1. Do you think it would be a different situation if it were men and boys? Would the world be
letting this occur?
2. Why is an educated woman such a taboo occurrence in developing countries?
3. Would the ultimate fix begin in education or in fixing problems within health such as
maternal morality?