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The cover of Half the Sky

Half the Sky

Nicholas D. Kristof, Sheryl WuDunn

Stories of women from Cambodia to Congo make the case that ending sex slavery, gender violence and deaths in childbirth, and educating girls, is this century's great moral challenge.

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15 parts, about 32 minutes to read.

Why read it

  • Follow individual women through trafficking, violence, childbirth injury and poverty, each story paired with the numbers behind it
  • See why the authors changed their minds about regulating prostitution and now favor crackdowns paired with job retraining and drug rehabilitation
  • Weigh grassroots projects against top down campaigns, and see where girls' schooling, deworming and microcredit paid off and where aid backfired

Who it is for

  • Readers unsure whether aid abroad does any good
  • Donors choosing which programs for women and girls to fund
  • Students of development and public health looking for evidence on what works

What the summary covers

  1. Introduction3 min
  2. Emancipating Twenty First Century Slaves2 min
  3. Prohibition and Prostitution2 min
  4. Learning to Speak Up2 min
  5. Rule by Rape2 min
  6. The Shame of "Honor"2 min
  7. Maternal Mortality: One Woman a Minute2 min
  8. Why Do Women Die in Childbirth?2 min
  9. Family Planning and the "God Gulf"2 min
  10. Is Islam Misogynistic?2 min
  11. Investing in Education3 min
  12. Microcredit: The Financial Revolution2 min
  13. The Axis of Equality2 min
  14. Grassroots vs. Treetops2 min
  15. What You Can Do2 min

Recommended by

  • Angelina JolieActor and humanitarian
    Women facing poverty, oppression, and violence are usually viewed as victims. Nick Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn’s Half the Sky shows that unimaginable challenges are often met with breathtaking bravery.
  • Melinda GatesPhilanthropist, co founder of the Gates Foundation
    Both a brutal awakening and an unmistakable call to action, this book should be read by all.
  • Fareed ZakariaAuthor of The Post American World
    If you have always wondered whether you can change the world, read this book. Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn have written a brilliant call to arms that describes one of the transcendent injustices in the world today—the brutal treatment of women.
  • Khaled HosseiniAuthor of The Kite Runner
    An unblinking look at one of the seminal moral challenges of our time. This stirring book is at once a savage indictment of gender inequality in the developing world and an inspiring testament to these women’s courage, resilience, and their struggle for hope and recovery.
  • Tom BrokawBroadcast journalist and author
    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.
  • George ClooneyActor and activist
    I think it’s impossible to stand by and do nothing after reading Half the Sky. It does what we need most, it bears witness to the sheer cruelty that mankind can do to mankind.

About the authors

  • Nicholas D. KristofNew York Times columnist who has won two Pulitzer Prizes
    • He was born in Chicago and grew up on a family sheep farm and cherry orchard in Yamhill, Oregon.
    • He graduated from Harvard College as a Phi Beta Kappa student.
    • He studied law at Magdalen College, Oxford, as a Rhodes Scholar.
    • He joined The New York Times in 1984 and later ran its bureaus in Hong Kong, Beijing and Tokyo before becoming a columnist in 2001.
    • With his wife Sheryl WuDunn he won the 1990 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting for coverage of the Tiananmen Square protests, the first married couple to win a Pulitzer for journalism.
    • He won a second Pulitzer, for Commentary, in 2006.
    • He has said the idea for Half the Sky was sparked by the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.
    • He has coauthored all his books with his wife, Sheryl WuDunn.
  • Sheryl WuDunnPulitzer Prize winning journalist and banker; coauthor of Half the Sky
    • She grew up on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, a third generation Chinese American.
    • She graduated from Cornell University in 1981 with a degree in European history.
    • She earned an MBA at Harvard Business School and a master's in public affairs at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School.
    • She joined The New York Times as a correspondent in its Beijing bureau in 1989.
    • With her husband Nicholas Kristof she won the 1990 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting for coverage of the Tiananmen Square protests.
    • She was the first female Asian American reporter to win a Pulitzer Prize.
    • She later became a senior banker focused on growth companies in technology, new media and emerging markets.
    • She and Kristof received the 2009 Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Lifetime Achievement.

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