Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide

Somewhere between 60 and over 100 million women and girls are missing from the globe today due to gender discrimination. Kristof and WuDunn argue that the worst of these abuses occur in the Global South, although they acknowledge that the Global North isn’t immune. The fact that millions of women are missing is difficult to comprehend. To help show how this is even possible, the authors document three types of abuses. The first is human trafficking. As the stories of Srey Rath, Meena Hasin, Geeta Gosh, Srey Neth, Srey Momma, Usha Narayane, and Sunitha Krishnan illustrate, traffickers often target women and girls from marginalized backgrounds: “In developing countries, tormenting the illiterate is usually risk-free; preying on the educated is more perilous” (50). The dominant group in communities often view sex work as a way to promote social cohesion—and ignore if traffickers target only poor and illiterate girls. Brothel owners use humiliation, rape, violence, and threats to break the spirit—and subsequently don’t usually need to use force to control women and girls. The authors emphasize that complying with brothel owners’ demands doesn’t mean that these women and girls consent to their situation.