"Women hold up half the sky."

This is an old Chinese proverb which inspired the title of Pulitzer prize winners Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn’s latest book “Half the Sky:Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide.”

Kristof and WuDunn are the first married couple to win a Pulitzer Prize for their international reports from China in 1990. Since then Kristof has received a second Pulitzer for work in The New York Times. Their previous achievements have been groundbreaking. However, “Half the Sky” seems to be the most important piece that Kristof and WuDunn have written.

I came across this book a month ago during one of my many random excursions through a Barnes & Nobles. Usually I get lost in the aisles and end up browsing for at least an hour wagering the countless possibilities of books to buy. This particular day I picked up ‘Half the Sky’ and I knew that I had to buy it. This particular day it was my only purchase because I knew it would be the only book I would need to read for the moment.

Reading the introduction I was immediately introduced to Srey Rath, a Cambodian teen who found herself lost in the sex trafficking industry that plagues so much of our world’s impoverished countries. Like many of the women in the stories told by Kristof and WuDunn, Srey did not choose a life of prostitution, but was scammed into it by trusting people who were going to help her family’s financial hardships with promise of a job in a far away land. Srey Rath was fortunate to escape the brothel and triumphed over her hardship. She now has a family and owns a shop selling souvenirs at the Cambodian border. With the help of aid from a grassroots non-profit group based in Cambodia, Srey Rath was able to overcome this form of oppression that Kristof and WuDunn compare to our own history of slavery.

According to the authors, the oppression of women should be at the top of the agenda world-wide for governments and human rights advocates. They believe that to make a society thrive and grow we must first educate and empower its’ women. The book takes us through many stories like Srey Rath’s from all over the world. Most with the same inspirational ending of triumph and empowerment. However, the women’s stories that are featured in this book are the exception. Today, over one million children are forced into prostitution every year. Three million women are sex slaves. Women ages 15 through 44 are more likely to be maimed or killed by male violence than by cancer, malaria, traffic accidents and war combined. The author’s write: “107 million females are missing from the globe today… Every year, at least another 2 million girls worldwide disappear because of gender discrimination.”

This book is an important read for everyone. It brings to the forefront an issue that we need to stop and pay close attention to. In the end the authors don’t ask much from their readers: Letter writing campaigns and petitions go a very long way. There is a list of credible groups to send monetary donations included at the end of the book. Instead of bombarding us with numbers and statistics Kristof and WuDunn use the courageous stories of these women to show how their model of education can help the greater community.

Building up a society through the empowerment and education of women is something that everyone should support. This is a powerful and important book that opens discussion for one of the most important issues of our time.

For more information visit the Half the sky movement at: http://www.halftheskymovement.org/