Half The Sky: Turning Opportunity For Women

“Women aren’t the problem but the solution. The plight of girls is no more a tragedy than an opportunity” (Kristof & WuDunn, 2009, p. xviii). This quote does an excellent job of introducing the issues discussed in the book Half the Sky. In this book, Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn present us with the issue of the unjust and cruel treatment of women in today’s world. Women throughout the world are treated in unthinkably bad ways, but the majority of people are not even aware of the suffering these women face on a daily basis. According to Kristof and WuDunn (2009), “Women aged fifteen through forty-four are more likely to be maimed or die from male violence than from cancer, malaria, traffic accidents, and war combined” (p. 61). However, Kristof and WuDunn (2009) also point out that if something dramatic such as a school shooting or bombing takes place, it makes breaking news, and everyone is aware of it all at once (p. xiv). Plenty of women are being mistreated every minute of

Women have long been fighting for their right to be seen as equal to men. Even to this day, women continue to fight for their rights, things such as the right to non-gender discriminatory wages. While there may be some arguments over the state of gender equality in the modern world, it is undeniable that there have been great strides made toward recognizing the female 's worth in the workforce and as a human being. Despite these strides, however, things are still not yet ideal for women and many of the issues females face today are the very same issues that have been plaguing them for decades. While it is unfortunate the oppression of women has been so long-lived, the length of that exposure has thankfully enabled many talented writers to both lament over the fact and emphasize the need for gender equality.

Detailing the struggles faced by women across the developing world, Half the Sky is an emotional and compelling text providing insight into issues that are essentially, a world away. Half the Sky covers with great depth the hardships and injustices that women are faced with – often as a direct result of cultural, political or economic forces. Throughout the chapters of this book, I was made aware of hardships I had never thought to look into – and have begun to think of the real world implications of my actions, and how I may alter those actions to have a greater impact on disenfranchised populations around the world.

Can you imagine being sold to someone that consistently beats you every day and also makes you sell your body for money that you don’t even get too keep. In “Half the Sky”, the author Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn gives the readers a glimpse of the oppression of women worldwide. “Half the Sky” is one of the most important books I have ever read. I would highly recommend this book to everyone. The first three pages I read already had me in tears. What makes this book so outstanding to me was reading and learning about all these different women and girls that has suffered in a way I didn’t think people were doing. Some of the stories were dealt with sex trafficking, maternal death, attacks on women, and not sending girls to school because of income. But the moving portrayals of the survivors improve the issues. Many of these survivors are healthy and doing very well. I never thought most of these stories that was in the book was going on in the world.

This book is a crucial dose of reality for those of us that are spoiled by the comforts we have grown used too. Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn explain in the book “Half the Sky” why empowering women in the developing world is ethically right and extremely vital.It is a gripping story of how customs and culture have historically oppressed women. The strength of the human rights movement and of actual change across all cultures is going to be asteadfast task of courageous women who give themselves permission to say no to so many years of unthinkable tyrannical cultural customs and fight for a new way of life. Many of us close our eyes

Gender can happen in the real world which can lead to personal experiences. I have experienced some gender inequality throughout my life and have had family situations since I have been alive. For instance, my parents lived in a time where men went to work and the women had to clean, cook, and stuff around the house. I have experienced some problems myself by my brother and I having to do outside yard work while my sister only does inside work. She claims that yard work is “for men and it’s a man 's job.”. What I have to say about that is that men and women don 't need to do work based off if it is a man or woman’s job, work is work and you shouldn’t base it off gender inequality. Another situation I was faced with was when my mom was trying to get a job, she was trying to get a job at selling Tupperware. She was faced with “you can’t sell Tupperware because you are a woman and people don 't buy stuff off of women.”. She sticked with her gut and went for it, now she is very successful in her business and doesn’t let what a guy said to her stop her.

Half the Sky is a movie that discusses the oppression of women around the world. It brings to light the issues that, even in today's society, are still occurring. Women, young adults, and children everywhere in the world are becoming victims to abuse, rape, and being deprived of getting an education. This film documents Nikolas Kristof going around the world with the help of well known people in America to show some of the issues and some organizations that are working to change the way society views women and children. Early in the documentary a shocking statistic was given. It stated that around 60 million to 100 million females are currently missing out of the population. Where are all of these women going, and how are we letting this

Society pushes specific jobs based on certain gender. It is then harder for the parent to do the opposite

Over time there has been a change in gender success throughout education “coming into the late 1980’s girls were less likely than boys to obtain one or more A-levels and were less likely to go on to higher education however 1990 's there was a sudden reversal girl were doing better than boys and In 2006 10% more females were obtaining 2 or more A-levels than males (Trueman,2016)”. In today’s society feminist’s doubt that the topic in school want girls to achieve less like the model also considers that gender stereotyping may still be in society as boys are believed to fit better in the workforce than girls. The distinction between girls and boys are often sketched on sex and ideas of biology Dr Zuleyka mention that “Sex are the biological traits that societies use to assign people into the category of either male or female, whether it be through a focus on chromosomes, genitalia or some other physical ascription." (Zevallos), Gender does not depend on biological personality it is an idea that describes how societies determine and manage sex categories also determined by what an individual feels and does. Girls are more conscientious and mature while boys are seen as a liability student. A parent who spends less time reading to their son impact their son to achieve a lower grade. Many jobs tend to be dominated by one gender for example nursing which is seen as a female job. Girls do consistently better than boys at all levels and likely to get higher grades

Women all over the world have been mistreated for more than a century. It has been exploited throughout the world as how “women aren’t currently treated the same as men in certain situations” but it is far more beyond that. Only half of the world seems to at least know what is really happening behind the curtain. Ambiguous people have manipulated the very much realness with what is exactly taking place in our society. In this essay, I will be talking about the following things; Inequity in the workplace, “Asking for it”, Violence against women globally, Education, and The psychology of it all. These five topics need to be demanded attention. Our younger generation needs to be cognizant of what has been going on for many millenniums. Girls and women should be able to walk around at night and not be afraid, nor should they be afraid to oppose another man. There is no real justification on why women should be treated like this but there is plenty of justification on why they shouldn 't, so genuinely why is this problem happening? Some of the books that I read to have mostly validation on this paper from other human beings but also to enlighten myself even more that I already am. “Subjection of Women” by John Stuart Mill, “Created Equal: Voices on Women 's Rights” by Anna Horsbrugh-Porter, and “Equal Pay for Equal Work” by Grace C. Strachan. I chose these three texts because each one yet talks about the same thing but has a little bit of a different perspective on each. I

Women’s equality is an issue that has been around for awhile. While women have been given many rights to increase equality, including the right to vote and go to college, the problem hasn’t completely vanished. One area that still sees this is in sports. Women’s sports do not draw nearly as many fans and are not covered in the media as much as men’s sports, pay differences between male and female athletes are large, and female athletes have to wait longer to start their professional career than men, which risks their professional career before it even starts.

The first section of Half the Sky argues on gender inequality by providing the audience with some of the most brutal real-life examples of women life’s on the developing world. In the second part of the book, Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn push for action and political movement to promote a campaign against slavery with a primary focus on the individual influences over foreign relations.

Nicolas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn’s novel, Half the Sky, is primarily a call for social equality and freedom from oppression for women across the globe. The authors are actively taking the first step of achieving a global feminist movement by informing Westerners of the injustices are that are being done to women worldwide in the name of tradition and culture; they do this through personal stories and by exposing legal or cultural inequalities. As Cynthia Enloe (2004) writes in The Curious Feminist, “if something is accepted as “traditional”- inheritance passing through the male line…it can be

In expanding upon who I am and the important influences that have helped me become

Although they have been given more rights and equality, women still lack fairness in areas such as education, domestic abuse, crime, and lower class value. Cassandra Clifford states in her article “Are Girls still marginalized? Discrimination and Gender Inequality in Today’s Society”, “Woman and girls are abused by their husbands and fathers, young girls are exploited by sex tourism and trafficking, girls in many countries are forced into arranged marriages at early ages. Twice as many women are illiterate as men, due to the large gap in education, and girls are still less likely to get jobs and excel in the work place than boys.” She describes some of the issues that women face today around the world. These issues are what keep society from coming together to form a better world.