Essay about Half the Sky

The first assumption argues that “western” feminist discourses emphasize that all women are bound together by a shared oppression and are powerless (53-54). Mohanty systemically explores this theory through an in depth analysis of five categories in which women of the third world are traditionally presented as homogenous victims by “western” feminist. The first two categories, women as victims of male violence and women as universal dependents, arguably offer the most straightforward deconstruction of the gendered body of knowledge that is power. Women, especially women of the third world, are all seen as victims of male violence and control (54). All women are defined as powerless, and all men are defined as powerful (55). Similarly, all women are defined as powerless dependents in the second category. Mohanty argues, “this is because descriptive gender differences are transformed into the divisions between men and women” (55). This division possesses a privileged position as the explanation for the oppression of women (56). Therefore, women are seen as a powerless group no matter what the historical or cultural situation because they are deemed so prior to any analysis (56).

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.

In the novel, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, written by authors Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn in 2009, these two call attention to the oppression of women. These authors label the incidents that occur throughout our world involving women oppression as an epidemic of our generation. The novel demonstrates the severity of sex trafficking, sexual violence, and lack of education of women that are seen amongst us. There exists many relations of opportunities concerning educational and professional studies among the women portrayed in the novel and myself. Although, related opportunities are seen, the underlying severity of what these women endure to reach those opportunities are much more challenging than mine.

The author’s purpose in Half the Sky, a nonfiction book written by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, is to educate the reader about the challenges that women and girls in low-income countries face and to offer solutions on how to turn this oppression into opportunity for these women and the countries that they come from. Kristof and WuDunn are able to express their purpose by connecting real stories from women half way across the world to facts about the situations that they are in, “Saima [a Pakistani women who has defeated all odds by utlizing microcredit] is a successful participant in the microcredit revolution sweeping the developing world....Captialism, it turns out, can achieve what charity and good intentions sometimes cannot”

Reading chapter 1 of Half The Sky, human trafficking is not something you can simply read about it, but must live the experience to truly feel its impact. As an American who has live his whole life protect by its wealth and strong resources, to define the term trafficking is not merely just a female or even man to provide sexual services to clients. In country such as India, it can be view as rite of passage where one does not have a choice to reject offers from brothels that wishes to lessen women body, and vice versa there voice. It is not just a form of slavery that rivals plantation owners from the south who view those of darker completion as there inferiors. It is something that has their own terrors of horror where you’re not just force

The oppression of women and girls in the developing world is this era’s most pervasive human rights violation. In the world today, being a girl means being sentenced to a life of poverty, abuse, exploitation and deprivation. Denied the most basic human rights, millions of girls and women are deprived of education, security, and most importantly, a voice. And yet, despite the cruel circumstances they endure, girls and women constantly strive to rise above their oppression. Marina Nemat, author of the memoir, Prisoner of Tehran and Meena Hasina from Nicholas D. Kristoff’s Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide are testaments of the bravery and willpower of women.

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.

The documentary, Half the Sky Part II: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide (2012), is based off of a book written by Nicolas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. The setting of this documentary is in three poor countries, Kenya, Somaliland, and India. This is a nonfictional documentary where maternal mortality, prostitution, and economic empowerment tend to be common constant struggles in many developing countries. Kristof and WuDunn travel with three talented celebrity activist to witness these struggles first hand and helped spread global awareness. These celebrities come face to face with three passionate women in each country who fight daily to make a difference and change women’s inequality in their countries. Women in these countries and in many other countries deal with maternal mortality, sex trafficking, violence, and discrimination threats every day. Some women do not know different and are lead to believe this is their destine while others are frightened and are begging for change. Although, these countries are on different parts of the map they have common struggles due to common causes.

Half the Sky written by Nicholas D. Kristoff and Sheryl WuDunn is a novel that in dept depicts some of the horrific cases of the oppression of women and girls in developing countries.The novel takes you through Africa and Asia, with detailed accounts of how so many women have been treated poorly simply because of their status and sex. Not only does the novel give you shocking and almost surprising information that most people in more developed countries don’t know, because they are sheltered by their countries ways; It shows the light at the end of the tunnel, that women can rise from this status of oppression, that by being educated, by speaking up and giving ourselves a voice, we can overcome these barriers and achieve greatness, no matter where we are or the troubles we face along the way. The excerpt that I chose is a brief

Throughout history, women have been victims of oppression. Even though there have been attempts to shed light on the issue that women face worldwide, it seems as if humanity still does not understand its importance. Society has tried to mold everyone to believe that white heterosexual men are superior to those who do not fit the hegemonic norm. However, there have been women and men who dedicated their lives to fight this worldwide issue. Amongst those people are Nicholas Kristoff and Cheryl WuDunn, who are authors of Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide and who are also featured in the movie documentary. Ishrad Manji defines Gendercide in his article “Changing Lives” that was published in The New York Times as “the daily slaughter of girls in the developing world” and it “steals more lives in any given decade than all the genocides of the 20th century.” Sex trafficking, forced prostitution, maternal mortality, and gender-based violence are subjects that are especially exposed. Therefore, the Half the Sky Movement has proposed microfinance and education as ways to overcome these problems.

Half the Sky is a collection of interviews, facts and recommendations; all attributing to women’s rights and issues on an international level. The authors interviewed various women to provide the readers with their individual stories regarding the struggle to overcome the oppressive environments that they live in. The authors, Nicolas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, are married. WuDunn is originally from China and Kristof is a White American that worked and lived in China for several years. Both of them have a background in writing for the New York Times and as editors for businesses. They won a Pulitzer Prize in journalism for a segment on China at the New York Times. Since the authors have an ambition for journalism and international life,

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

“More than 100 million women are missing” (p. xv), estimated Amartya Sen, a Nobel Prize-winning economist. This is one of the first new things that I learned and already it immediately shocked me, so much so, that I had trouble believing it. But after becoming aware that follow-up studies were conducted and how they also still calculated millions upon millions of “missing women” (p. xv), I thought that by any estimate that it is pure insanity. That is such a huge number and it hurts me to think about all those women’s lives that could have been a reality, but instead have had the gift of life taken away from them. This number is the result of the oppression and discrimination that women throughout the world face. This is a human rights abuse of a momentous scale.

The term skyclad is used to refer to ritual nudity, to wear only the sky, or clad only by the sky. Some Wiccan, Pagan and Neo-Pagan traditions perform some or all of their rituals skyclad.

From unprecedented population ageing to increasing unemployment, from global leadership imbalances to persisting conflicts, from resource scarcity to volatile global food supplies, the world faces a series of interconnected challenges. The Global Agenda Council on Women’s Empowerment aims to highlight how women’s empowerment is a part of the solutions to these challenges. (World Economic Forum 3)