Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide

The authors explore three brutal forms of oppression: trafficking, gender-based violence, and maternal mortality. While these abuses occur in every country, Kristof and WuDunn choose to focus on the Global South, or non-US and European countries, because “in poor countries gender discrimination is often lethal in a way that it usually is not [in wealthier countries]” (xvi) partly because of sociocultural context. Criminal organizations and wealthy men often use sexual humiliation, including rape and trafficking, to terrorize lower socioeconomic communities in the Global South. Murder leaves evidence in the form of bodies—but police officers and government officials receive bribes to hide it, and because of the societal stigma against rape and sex work, survivors often remain silent. The authors suggest that “sexual humiliation was thus an effective and low-risk strategy to intimidate challenges and to control the community” (49).

In addition, the authors argue that the worst treatment of women—including disproportionately high numbers of trafficking—often occurs in the most sexually conservative countries, such as Iran, India, and Pakistan. One reason for this, the authors posit, is that young men whose culture forbids sex before marriage turn to sex workers. Women forced into sex work are often uneducated, so they don’t know their rights as human beings and are unable to stand up for themselves. They’re often women from marginalized backgrounds, including women of lower socioeconomic status or of lower castes as well as foreigners. In fact, people in countries with high levels of sex workers often view the workers as inferior humans, which enables the abuse to continue.

Once women and girls are forced into sex work, escaping it is extremely difficult because of the stigma associated with “illicit” sex (even rape). Children of sex workers either become sex workers themselves (mainly girls) or are forced to cook and do other chores for the brothel (mainly boys). This vicious cycle is difficult to disrupt and impacts the most marginalized women in society.

Although some “turn to [sex work] opportunistically or out of economic desperation” (9), millions of girls and women are forced into it. They’re essentially enslaved. Categorizing sex workers is challenging because some are enslaved, some are entrepreneurs, and some fall in a gray area in between. However, the authors estimate that at least three million women and girls and a small number of boys are enslaved for the purpose of sex work. Kristof and WuDunn focus on sex slaves because this issue is so prevalent among marginalized women in the Global South.

The authors consider kidnapping and raping girls in parts of the rural Global South “a time-honored tradition” (62). A young man might kidnap and rape a girl if he doesn’t have a bride price (which the man pays to the woman’s family at the time of marriage) or if he doubts that the woman’s family will accept him. Once a girl is raped, her family and community often consider her ruined because she’s no longer a virgin. This makes it easier for the man to marry her. The authors underscore how “the risks to boys are minimal, since the girl’s parents never prosecute the rapist—that would aggravate the harm to their daughter’s reputation and would be resented in the community as a breach of tradition” (62).

The father of Woinshet Zebene, a young Ethiopian girl kidnapped and raped so that a man could marry her (Chapter 4), told the authors that the crime of stealing livestock receives more weight than that of stealing a person—a point that deeply upset him. While Ethiopian laws have since changed—partly because American women wrote angry letters demanding changes to the legal code after hearing Woinshet’s story—the authors emphasize that laws often matter little in rural areas. In addition, they highlight how women participate in acts of violence on other women, including brutal beatings and rape. To the authors, both men and women “absorb and transmit misogynistic values” (69).

Likewise, other forms of sexual violence, such as honor killings and honor rapes, have a sociocultural basis. In many religions and cultures where these abuses are still prevalent, including the Middle East and Africa, female sexuality is considered sacred. People who follow these traditions often assume that “codes of sexual honor, in which women are valued based on their chastity, […] protect women” (83). The authors vehemently disagree. They show how these forms of abuse systemically dishonor and humiliate women, especially during war.

Maternal mortality, too, stems from a disregard for women. Culture plays a strong role in whether women have access to condoms, prenatal care, hospitals, and other important items that minimize unwanted pregnancies and make childbirth safer. Nevertheless, millions of women around the world don’t have access to these necessities because they’re from lower socioeconomic backgrounds and rural areas, and, therefore, society sees them as lesser humans.

These nuanced and complex sociocultural aspects of the oppression of women and girls might imply that solving this issue is impossible. However, because much oppression stems from culture, Kristof and WuDunn firmly believe that solutions lie in changing cultures. One of the most powerful solutions, from their perspective, is education.