Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide
08/28/2009
34 Million Friends founder Jane Roberts takes a look at Kristof's Half the Sky
At its core, the book Half the Sky (Knopf) by the Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times husband-wife team of Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl Wudunn is asking for a worldwide grassroots movement for the women and girls of the world. It does this through riveting and inspiring stories of women who triumph over unimaginable adversity to change their world and ours.
Every person who has ever lived has come out of the womb of a woman. When the world takes care of women, women take care of the world. Education, health and gender equality are the cornerstones of women's empowerment, of a livable planet, and of a more hopeful world. This book puts it all together like no other.
Of particular interest to the global health community will be the health-related stories. Part of Chapter Six, for example, shares the story of the much-beloved Dr. Allan Rosenfield, for whom maternal mortality was not only an issue of health, but one of human rights. Buy the book for this chapter alone.
There is also Prudence from Cameroon, mother of three and pregnant with her fourth. I remember vividly her narrative from Nick's columns in the Times - taken up again in the book. If an untrained birth attendant had not sat on her stomach and broken her uterus, if a doctor had not gone home for a good night's sleep and delayed operating until morning, Prudence might be with us still. Prudence died with a pint of Nick's own A-positive blood in her veins. Reporter becomes hero. Prudence becomes the face of what maternal mortality really means.
Shamelessly, I am overjoyed to have "Jane Roberts and her 34 Million Friends" be part of this book. Lois Abraham and I started 34 Million Friends of the UNFPA in July, 2002, and mentioned in one of Nick's columns in 2003. Since that time I have kept him up to date. About a year ago, his wife, Sheryl interviewed me for a full hour in a hotel lobby in New York.
In the appendix is what the authors refer to as a "rather quirky compendium of groups we've seen in action." A list of 45 NGOs based both in the U.S. and abroad, each of which specializes in supporting women in developing countries, their education, health and economic opportunity. Serendipitously, 34 Million Friends is first because it starts with a number.
The world is in big trouble. Population, food, water, environmental and energy crises may well overwhelm people's capacity to cope. Women's equality, health, education and human rights are our only chance.
I am reminded of the words of Stephen Lewis: "I challenge you to enter the fray against gender inequality. There is no more honorable or productive calling. There is nothing of greater import in this world." Half the Sky enters the fray. I would like to see it translated into many languages and become a worldwide best-seller. Its significance can not be overstated.
Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide has an accompanying website and will be widely available on Sept. 8, 2009.
Jane Roberts is cofounder 34 Million Friends of the UNFPA.
What did you think of Half the Sky? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.
Jane Roberts and Nick have important things to say. I hope everyone follows the leadership they are providing to us.
Please note that the following request for attendance is not only for Jane, Nick and Sheryl, but also members of Global Health Connections as well.
!!!!! SPECIAL INVITATION !!!!!
Something is happening in October.
************COME TO NYC***********
YOU ARE INVITED TO THE SECOND ANNUAL MEETING OF THE DOT EARTH COMMUNITY AND FRIENDS ON THE GROUND FLOOR OF THE NYTIMES BUILDING, THE FIRST MONDAY IN OCTOBER 2009, THE FIFTH DAY OF THE MONTH AT 2:00 PM.
Be there. Everybody is coming. We are going global.
Thanks for what all of you are doing to protect biodiversity from extirpation, the environment from relentless degradation and Earth’s body from reckless dissipation.
— Steven Earl Salmony on 2009-09-02
I am an undergraduate student hopeful of one day pursuing a career in global health, and I was truly moved by Half the Sky. I read this book in the airplane on my way over to Hyderabad, a city I have traveled to all of my life to visit family. Taking one glance down the street of Raj Bhavan Road, one can readily appreciate on the surface the poverty that plagues the city. What is not so obvious, however, is the extent of brothels and forced prostitution as described in Half the Sky. In a highly conservative (and I hesitate using this term now) society such as India, these problems are not discussed as freely as poverty or hunger. The complexity of these problems is something I am just beginning to wrap my mind around. This book was invaluable to me, and I am very greatful for people like Ms. Jane Roberts and the authors of Half the Sky for leading this crusade against oppression.
— Veena Katikineni on 2010-01-10