Women hold up half the sky.
(Chinese Proverb)
There are days when I feel like I’m holding up all of it; like Chicken Little waiting for it to fall, but feeling it my personal and exclusive responsibility to manage and take care of. I see it as a burden vs. it’s intent: a statement of a woman’s worth and capacity. All of this speaks to my pathology, my chosen and well-learned forms of craziness, but that’s not what this post is about. This post is really about just the opposite; about the weight of the world that women shoulder around our globe. Their burdens far outweigh my own.
The book Half The Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity For Women Worldwide should be required reading for each and every one of us – women and men – particularly in the Western world . Written by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, Pulitzer Prize winners, they raise a “passionate call to arms against our era’s most pervasive human rights violation: the oppression of women and girls in the developing world” (from flyleaf).
They powerfully tell story after story of women who have known sexual slavery, trafficking, genital mutilation, injuries in childbirth, and so much more. No punches pulled, you cannot but wince (or undoubtedly cry) as you enter into the lives of these women, their daughters, their marriages, their families, their villages, their cultures, their worlds. And it’s a place we should not only go to…but in many ways, stay. We need to be about the work of lessening the weight on their shoulders and indeed, allowing them to hold up their part of the sky.
Despite the tragedy and nearly-impossible-to-comprehend harm women continue to know at exponential levels around the world, I got through the pages of this book with an overwhelming sense of hope. It takes form in two significant categories.
1) I feel hope anytime there is honest acknowledgment of a woman’s reality.
2) I feel hope anytime there is opportunity for action that will change a woman’s reality.
I cannot tell you how many times I find myself in conversations around the topic of women’s rights or feminism and am looking at blank (if not cynical) faces. There’s a general sense of malaise around acknowledging that women know extreme harm – certainly around the world, but even right in our own homes, our own families, our own churches, our own workplaces, our own neighborhoods. This book felt like Holy Writ in that regard; a text that offers perspective and truth – all embedded in story. It cannot be ignored. And when there is a collective end to ignore-ance then change can occur and hope can flourish. A woman’s reality can be changed.
Kristof and WuDunn call us to action. They acknowledge (and to some degree critique) the work of the U.N., global aid organizations, and NGOs around the world. But more, they talk about the impact of one person. They don’t ignore issues of public policy or social justice, but they ground such in the conversations we have, the relationships we build, the money we spend, the actions we take. Things are not hopeless. There is much that individual people have done. There remains far more that individual people can do; people like me – or like you. And when there is a collective call (and response) to action then change can occur and hope can flourish. A woman’s reality can be changed.
It is true: the plight and condition of women from the beginning of time has been and remains painful, rife with struggle, steeped in injustice. It is also true that women are strong, courageous, and amazing. This book shows us both. It should be read. It’s stories grieved. It’s call to action obeyed. It’s hope celebrated.
From the last page of the book:
Now let’s get on with it and speed up the day when women truly hold up half the sky.
Indeed, “let’s get on with it.”
This book is available in my Amazon Store. Click on the link to your right. Buy it. Read it. Then act. A viral movement of hope. Bring it on!!
Indeed, BRING IT ON!!!
I’m not the only one who feels this way. If you need even more reason to read it, hear these voices:
The stories that Kristof and WuDunn share are as powerful as they are heartbreaking. Their insight into gender issues and the role of women in development inspires hope, optimism, and most importantly, the will to change. Both a brutal awakening and an unmistakable call to action, this book should be read by all. (Melinda Gates)
Half the Sky is a passionate and persuasive plea to all of us to rise up and say ‘No more!’ to the 17-century abuses to girls and women in the 21st-century world. This is a book that will pierce your heart and arouse your conscience. It is a powerful piece of journalism by two masters of the craft who are tireless in their pursuit of one of the most shameful conditions of our time. (Tom Brokaw)
You can read more about the book and the ongoing work of Kristof and WuDunn at http://www.halftheskymovement.org.
And you can read more of my thoughts and experience of this book even tomorrow…
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I’ve quoted this before in the blogosphere, but your post brings to mind again the great Rukeyser quote:
“What would happen if one woman told the truth about her life? The world would split open.”
It sounds like this book tells a lot of true stories, and, in fact, splits open the world … but maybe the only way forward is to trust that this splitting is the birth of a new and better way. I hope.
The Rukeyser quote is my very favorite. I use it all the time – primarily to remind myself of my own need/desire to tell the truth; my own need/desire to split worlds open. And yes, it’s perfect for this book. Voice being given to a woman’s truth and the hope that comes from thinking that maybe, just maybe a new and better world could be birthed. I hope, as well. Thank you.
I love the conversation about women. I get the privelage of taking women from the US to go hear the stories of women in other worlds…women affected by slavery, poverty, HIV/AIDS, all while being wives, mothers, strugglers, some hopeful and others hope-less. If you would be interested in joining a group of women traveling to Thailand to hear first-hand the stories of women affected by sex slavery, contact me at Lynnee@occ.org for more information. There is value in hearing, caring and then sharing stories that advocate for the right of women to embrace their God-given dignity, power and value.
Love that you do this, Lynne. So beautiful and significant. And yes…I hope women do contact you directly, go with you, and change the world!!! ‘Not to mention their own.
I certainly hope you count this as one of your reviews for books you read for the WOMEN UNBOUND reading challenge. When you add it to the other links, the participants will come here and read this. Lots of people need to hear what the authors say, as well as what you have written here and in your post about being on the panel to discuss this book. Thanks for sharing it with us.
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Thank you so much for bringing this book to my attention. And visit us at Color Online. Sounds like you’d fit right in and I’d love to have you.
Oh, I’m so thrilled someone has read and reviewed this book for the Unbound Challenge! I just heard about the book yesterday, and the whole movement behind it at the website and it just sounds so great. I really want to read it.
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