Half the sky...

Just finished reading Half the Sky by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn.  If you haven’t yet…you really need to read it as soon as you possibly can.  This one definitely vaults firmly into the company of Three Cups of Tea as books that will change your outlook on life.

The subtitle of Half the Sky is “Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide,” which perfectly encapsulates the story that this book tells.  When you pick this one up, prepared to be at times shocked and horrified, but at other times uplifted and profoundly moved.  By emphasizing stories of women around the world rather than statistics, the authors make the astounding injustices women face and the obstacles many have so bravely overcome deeply personal.  Because, as the authors point out, huge statistics become numbing.  There is certainly no substitute for the exquisite storytelling this book provides.

While the travails of women in much of the developing world were not entirely new to me, as I had encountered the stories and statistics in previous reading, this book still opened my eyes.  As the uncle of countless nieces and the future father of multiple daughters (speculation of course…but a fair guess), it’s impossible to imagine the girls in my life facing the abject cruelty, torture, and injustice that many of the world’s girls and young women experience as a part of their everyday existence.  Here you will learn just how marginalized women and girls remain in many places.  From the horrific sex trade that holds millions of girls in de facto slavery, to the poverty that sentences thousands of women each year to death and horrible disease during child birth, to the strict misogynistic mores that relegate women and girls to subhuman status.

I won’t delve into the individual stories this book tells, as you can (and should) read them yourselves to learn what is happening to girls and women in our world.  I’ll simply leave you with my gut reactions and what this book taught me.

First, as is often the case, the difficulty in solving difficult problems like these (and as it so happens, the source of the most promising solutions) lies in the ambiguities.  For example, the details of sex trafficking aren’t always as they seem.  While many girls are held captive by force (true 21^st century slavery in its ugliest form), others are tacitly enslaved by monetary necessity or drug addiction (fostered and encouraged by their pimps).  In addition, one cannot assume that men are the only culprits…as women are often instrumental in trafficking and brothel management.  Incredibly, many women believe that abuse against women is acceptable under certain circumstances, revealing a systemic problem with how women view themselves.  In sum, identifying those responsible for the misdeeds and even those who are victims is not necessarily black and white.

Keeping these realities in mind…the authors most convincingly espouse the view (that I have seen argued elsewhere) that education, and specifically the education of girls, is the best method of choking off the sex trade and many of the other injustices that women currently face.  Certainly, law enforcement and international censure is necessary to curtail the current atrocities…but a lot more has to be done to change the culture that allows such atrocities to continue unchecked.  It has been shown time and again that educating girls decreases marginalization of women…and cultural marginalization (as was the case with blacks during slavery and the jews in Nazi Germany) is a key enabler of atrocity.

It is by adopting such a solutions-based approach that we can rise above the distracting and unhelpful quest to assign blame and transform a complex set of problems into simple dichotomy.  It’s tempting to write off problems that are most prominent in other parts of the world (as the most heinous crimes against women are)…in cultures that we don’t fully understand…as symptoms of a flawed culture, religion, etc.  This is certainly the easy way out…as it absolves us of any responsibility.  However, as the authors so deftly point out, these issues cut across religious and cultural boundaries and most often stem from a history of misogyny.  And we must also remember that none of us are pure.  America had government-sanctioned slavery (until the Civil War) and racial segregation (until the 1960’s) and denied women the right to vote (until 1920).  Countries of Western Europe were involved in the transatlantic slave trade (until the 19^th century) and colonization (of Africa and elsewhere) into the 20^th century. 

Hence, even the supposed paragons of human rights and enlightenment thinking were party to large scale atrocities and marginalization of women and entire races of people until relatively recently.  In that vein, maternal mortality rates in the U.S. remained inordinately high in the 19^th century and only began to sharply decline once women were granted voting rights…in other words, when women were accepted as equal citizens.  And still today, the FBI estimates that well over 100,000 children and young women are trafficked in America for sex.  They range from age 9 to 19, with an average age of 11.  Thus, any attempt to classify atrocities against women as the sad result of backwards cultures and religions flies in the face of overwhelming evidence.  The size of the problems in places such as Africa, the Middle East, and Asia are just as easily attributable to economic development level and educational opportunities as they are to religion or culture (case in point…many countries in these locations are at similar level of development as were the U.S. and countries of Western Europe when they openly practiced marginalization of women).

One final point that the authors make that is critical for hopes of continued and accelerated progress in the empowerment of women is that (putting it in my own words) we must embrace certain ambiguities.  On such a complex set of issues…it is unlikely that any person or group gets it all right or all wrong.  From a political perspective…evangelical conservatives must abandon the black and white dichotomy they have created…the attitude that their pet issues, such as abortion, are the only issues that matter.  That abstinence only education is the only answer for disease and pregnancy prevention.  This attitude has greatly damaged the women’s health movement. Likewise, secular liberals (like me) must overcome the black and white dichotomy we’ve created that breeds an inherent mistrust of religion-based charity.  While organized religion as an institution remains anathema to me personally, I can recognize that many faith-based organizations do good and compassionate work and support their efforts, while remaining critical of those with misguided and counterproductive aims. 

At its most basic, women’s rights are not a political issue, but rather a human issue.  While it may seem impossible at times in our over-politicized culture, we cannot allow every issue to be subverted as yet another battleground for ideologues.  It doesn’t matter your political persuasion or religion…children being enslaved for sex, women dying in child birth from preventable causes, and women being beaten and killed for breaching outmoded social codes is a tragedy and an outrage.  Until we are willing to accept good solutions, wherever they might come from, and find an urgency to help save the lives of people that are different from us in many ways…progress on these life or death issues will stagnate.  I for one don’t want future generations to look back on us and think, as we are prone to do about generations before us, “how did they let these atrocities continue?”  

Can we expect to save every child and woman or prevent all human suffering?  Of course not.  But, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to make things better.  And one important quality of this book is that it goes beyond merely bringing the problems to light (which would have been a great service in and of itself), and shows us solutions that have worked in the past and can work in the future…if only we can find our collective will. 

In sum…and in case you couldn’t tell…I highly recommend that you read this book.