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1-Page Summary of Half The Sky
Overall Summary
Introduction
The authors meet a young woman named Srey Rath. She tells them that she was promised a job in Thailand, but when she got there, the people who were supposed to help her took her to Malaysia and forced her into prostitution.
The author was at first reluctant to do this. But eventually she gave in and agreed to it, even though the customers tried to rape her and threatened her with death when she didn’t comply.
Rath and three other girls were desperate to escape their apartment, as it was locked. They used a board across two balconies to get to the next building. The police arrested them for violating immigration laws. Rath spent a year in jail, but then she got sold into slavery by a policeman who took her towards the border of Thailand.
Rath’s story is too common. Kristof and WuDunn write that gender equity should be a global humanitarian priority. They recount their journey to this mission, which began when they covered the massacre at Tiananmen Square in 1989, where 400-800 protestors were killed by the Chinese government. The authors realized that journalists often neglect coverage of tragic events happening every day because of their focus on newsworthy events like protests and massacres. In addition, little U.S. foreign aid is targeted toward helping women despite the fact that 60-100 million girls are missing or dead due to trafficking or other causes related to sex discrimination against women and girls globally.
The authors make it clear that the issue of gender inequality is not isolated to developing countries. Gender inequality exists in developed countries, and has been widely ignored. However, the problem is especially lethal in parts of the developing world. In many places around the world girls are valued less than boys are, and this can have devastating effects on their health and well-being. The authors argue that what amounts to a “gendercide” has killed more people since World War II than all genocides combined. They write: “In this century we believe that the paramount moral challenge will be the struggle for gender equality around the world.”
Rath escaped from the brothel and was given a pushcart by American Assistance for Cambodia. She became successful in her business, got married, saved money for her son’s education, and expanded her business to two stalls. The authors recommend that if you ever visit Cambodia, go to Rath’s stall and meet someone who has completely turned their life around after experiencing such terrible things earlier on in life.
Rath’s story, the authors stress, shows what women can achieve when given opportunity. They warn that the rest of the book will be full of sobering anecdotes, but want readers to remember that “women aren’t the problem but the solution.” The authors then describe visiting Sheryl WuDunn’s ancestral village in China and discovering why there are so few women there. It turned out that they were all working in factories supplying American retail stores. This pattern is known as “the girl effect.”
In the book “Half the Sky”, Kristof and WuDunn argue that women’s empowerment can help combat poverty. Gender equality initiatives in India and Bangladesh had great success in the late 20th century, and in the 1990s it was realized that gender equality has global benefits. Aid groups such as Doctors Without Borders have also focused on empowering women. The authors argue that even terrorism can be abated by women’s empowerment because more and more people are beginning to see its importance on an international scale.
The authors of Half the Sky lay out the problems they will address in their book, including sex trafficking, gender-based violence (including honor killings and mass rape), and maternal mortality. They also reference solutions such as girls’ education and microfinance. Other issues that are important need to be addressed as well, but these three issues have a greater effect on women’s rights than others do. Additionally, while many human rights issues exist globally, women’s oppression is one of the most serious ones that needs to be addressed first because it has more opportunity for change than other problems do.
