Error loading page.
Try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, there may be a network issue, and you can use our self test page to see what's preventing the page from loading.
Learn more about possible network issues or contact support for more help.

Half the Sky

Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide

Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

Two Pulitzer Prize winners expose the most pervasive human rights violation of our era-the oppression of women in the developing world-and tell us what we can do about it.

An old Chinese proverb says "Women hold up half the sky." Then why do the women of Africa and Asia persistently suffer human rights abuses? Continuing their focus on humanitarian issues, journalists Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn take us to Africa and Asia, where many women live in profoundly dire circumstances-and some succeed against all odds.

A Cambodian teenager is sold into sex slavery; a formerly illiterate woman becomes a surgeon in Addis Ababa. An Ethiopian woman is left for dead after a difficult birth; a gang rape victim galvanizes the international community and creates schools in Pakistan. An Afghan wife is beaten by her husband and mother-in-law; a former Peace Corps volunteer founds an organization that educates and campaigns for women's rights in Senegal.

Through their powerful true stories, the authors show that the key to progress lies in unleashing women's potential, that change is possible, and that each of us can play a role in making it happen.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

  • Formats

  • Languages

  • Levels

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Just as moral leaders ended African slavery and the Holocaust, the authors say, a similar initiative is necessary to stop the oppression of third-world women in three disturbing areas: sex trafficking and forced prostitution, cultural violence against women, and maternal mortality. They argue that governments prefer bombing perceived enemies to dealing with these entrenched practices, despite evidence that educational investment, small business loans, and courageous lawmaking can all help women help themselves--and their children and communities. Cassandra Campbell's somber reading couldn't be more attuned to the authors' mission as she interprets writing that is as intense as it gets. Her impressive depth carries listeners through the book's gruesome lows and inspiring highs, and ultimately to a place where they cannot dismiss this human rights tragedy. T.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine
    • Library Journal

      Starred review from February 1, 2010
      Kristof and WuDunn, the first married couple ever both to win Pulitzer Prizes for journalism, here expose the brutal horrors endured by millions of women throughout Asia and Africa, putting names and faces to these individuals and their suffering. They argue that the key to change is social entrepreneurs who can empower at the grassroots level through such means as education and microloans. With her soothing delivery, actress/narrator Cassandra Campbell ("The School of Essential Ingredients") avoids sensationalizing this already dramatic material, whose accounts of gang rape, forced prostitution, and childbirth injuries make for painful but essential adult listening. Strongly recommended. [The Knopf hc, which published in September 2009, was a "New York Times" best seller; the pb will release in May 2010.Ed.]Risa Getman, Hendrick Hudson Free Lib., Montrose, NY

      Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from August 17, 2009
      New York Times
      columnist Kristof and his wife, WuDunn, a former Times
      reporter, make a brilliantly argued case for investing in the health and autonomy of women worldwide. “More girls have been killed in the last fifty years, precisely because they were girls, than men were killed in all the wars of the twentieth century,” they write, detailing the rampant “gendercide” in the developing world, particularly in India and Pakistan. Far from merely making moral appeals, the authors posit that it is impossible for countries to climb out of poverty if only a fraction of women (9% in Pakistan, for example) participate in the labor force. China's meteoric rise was due to women's economic empowerment: 80% of the factory workers in the Guangdong province are female; six of the 10 richest self-made women in the world are Chinese. The authors reveal local women to be the most effective change agents: “The best role for Americans... isn't holding the microphone at the front of the rally but writing the checks,” an assertion they contradict in their unnecessary profiles of American volunteers finding “compensations for the lack of shopping malls and Netflix movies” in making a difference abroad.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

Languages

  • English

Levels

  • ATOS Level:9.5
  • Interest Level:9-12(UG)
  • Text Difficulty:8

Loading