La mitad del cielo: Opresión hacía oportunidad de las mujeres en todo el mundo

Fecha de recepción: 08/04/2010 Fecha de aceptación: 01/05/2010 HALF THE SKY: TURNING OPPRESSION INTO OPPORTUNITY FOR WOMEN WORLDWIDE LA MITAD DEL CIELO: OPRESIÓN HACÍA OPORTUNIDAD DE LAS MUJERES EN TODO EL MUNDO Dr. Edward J. Schauer College of Juvenile Justice ejschauer@pvamu.edu Estados Unidos de América By: Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009, pp.

XXII-294) (ISBN 978-0-307-26714-6) Half the Sky lays out an agenda for the world's women in the attempt to stem three major ubiquitous, international abuses: First, sex trafficking and forced prostitution; second, gender-based violence including honor killings and mass rape; and third, maternal mortality, which claims one woman per minute worldwide. The first two abuses listed above are serious international crimes which most nations of the world have agreed to aggressively prevent, identify, prosecute, and punish (Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, Supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, UNGA Res. 55/25, of the year 2000). Signatory states have also agreed to rescue and offer aftercare to victims of these crimes.

The co-authors of Half the Sky, Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn won a Pulitzer Prize for their journalistic coverage of the 1989 Tiananmen protests in China.

They were the first married couple to win a Pulitzer Prize in journalism. Nicholas Año 3, vol. V agosto-diciembre 2010/Year 3, vol. V August-December 2010 www.somecrimnl.es.tl

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Kristof, an American journalist, authors an Op-Ed column for The New York Times; and is universally known for illuminating human rights abuses around the globe.

WuDunn an investment advisor, focuses upon philanthropy. They have also won a George Polk Award and an Overseas Press Club Award. Kristof and WuDunn have coauthored two previous books about Asia, Thunder from the East: Portrait of a Rising Asia (2000) and China Wakes: The Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power (1994).

Kristof was named an honorary African by Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa for his courageous journalistic coverage of conflicts on the African continent.

For commentary on human rights issues, he won a second Pulitzer Prize and several other national and international awards. Extremely successful in the profession of international journalism and also in human rights activism, Kristof graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard College, and then attended Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship where he majored in law and graduated with first-class honors.

The first Asian-American to win a Pulitzer Prize, Sheryl WuDunn worked as an international loan officer at Goldman Sachs and Bankers Trust and has been an executive at The New York Times and worked as a New York Times correspondent in Beijing. A graduate of Cornell University, WuDunn received her two master’s degrees from Harvard Business School and Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School.

The central moral challenge of the 19th Century was slavery; whereas, in the 20th Century, totalitarianism served as the critical moral challenge. Kristof and WuDunn amass evidence to convince that, in the developing world, gender inequality will serve as the chief moral struggle of the 21st Century. Certainly, the authors supply current and abundant evidence that around the world, women and girls suffer an extremely high incidence of maltreatment and exploitation.

From their experience and research, the authors draw examples of the victimization of women largely from Africa and Asia. Here, in struggles against horrible experiences, we meet extraordinary women who are actively fighting back against cruelty and oppression. The repression of women and girls may be official, cultural, or informal; but the victimization is common and ubiquitous. The authors make a special point to remind the readers that while the women may have been victimized, they do not necessarily remain victims: Women dominated and subjugated often must be appreciated as survivors rather than as victims, as captains of their own destinies, and often as agents of change.

Emphasized by the authors in every chapter of Half the Sky, is the theme that, The best way to fight poverty and extremism is to educate and empower women and girls (http://www.halftheskymovement.org/). Through their research, Kristof and WuDunn have found that the best way to allow women and girls to take control of their destinies worldwide (thus to minimize their exploitation) is to create the cultural support for women's education, to make education available for women, and to encourage women and girls to take advantage of educational opportunities.

While HALF THE SKY should be considered required reading for every student of criminal justice, criminology, women's issues, and human rights; it is also essential reading for all citizens of the globe. The stories of inspiration and courage are amazing; and therefore the book tends to draw students into wanting to read to learn more about this critical subject. Written so that a person with an 8th grade vocabulary can easily read to understand the book, the authors have compiled a work which is essential to the study of the victimization of, and the survival of exploited women and girls. HALF THE SKY is widely acclaimed as the definitive book on the

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international victimization of women and girls: It should be accepted as the seminal work for further research in this critical area of human pathos and survival.

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