Plight to Flight: Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn

Recruit their Readers for a Movement of Women

By Olivia Ferrington

Wayne State University

Com 2100, March 27, 2017

As said in an old Chinese proverb, women hold up half the sky.

No one who hasnt seen the statistics or read the stories told by the women themselves

could possibly think numbers of worldwide oppression would be so high. The statistics and

stories of abuse, sex trafficking, mutilation, honor killing, abandonment, and death are

gathered and used as a rude awakening, as they should be.

The married couple, journalists Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn journey to

roughly a dozen different countries where abuse and oppression of women is horrifically

common and detrimental. On top of the countries they themselves visit, they include statistics

from a number of others that are prime candidates for moral change.

The main purpose of this book could be to reach gender equality all over the world.

Deeper, it reveals the awful but honest facts and stories that they found on their journey. The

hope is that the information processed by the reader is enough to make them get up and not

only want to help make change, but find a way to do so.

Kristof and WuDunn pave way to create the all mighty change and face this centurys

paramount moral challenge. To the best of their abilities, they prove that women are

beneficial to the world and necessary in order for the world to grow, prosper and continue.

They want to turn oppression into opportunity.

Kristof and WuDunn intend to show with the aid of stories from women who did

survive the tragedies, that when women are allowed the means to be something more and
help themselves succeed, they will indeed succeed. Economically, women can enhance the

world, take business into their own hands and make something happen.

This book also exemplifies through the organizations already fighting that there is

hope and there is success when there is a fight for change.

They want to prove that the murder of women, literally speaking, or through such

extreme abuse and manipulation that they no longer recognize who they are, is not the

solution, ever.

Gendercide is the term used in Half The Sky. More girls are killed in this

generocide in any given century, than people were slaughtered in all of the genocides of

the twentieth century.

Kristof, the lead writer, provides a good layout for whats being said. He uses direct

quotes from girls telling their story, summarizes, and uses related statistics and facts. There is

a sub- chapter to each chapter. The sub- chapter is a continuation of the topic with a story or a

continuation of the point of that story.

He provides stories outside of the first- person stories by bringing in ones that a

womens rights campaign worker or a leader of a gender equality organization witnessed.

These stories alone provide unbelievable amounts of cringe- worthy information and insight

into the daily life of a lower- class woman living in China, India, Nepal, Thailand, Prague,

Cambodia, Yemen, and so on.

The only aspect of the book that is a slight downfall is the back and forth within a

chapter between story, outside story, and statistics/ facts. This brought occasional confusion

when the statistic included a different country than already being talked about and called for

re-reading. However, due to the immensities of what was being said, re-reading was already a

to- do sometimes.

The good aspects are everything else.

 The style that Kristof and WuDunn write in is natural. They dont use devices that

would intentionally make it more difficult to read aside from whats already presented. They

use similes and metaphors to enhance what theyre delivering. They provide everything

expected- an awakening that hurts once its known and tugs at heartstrings and creates anger

at the core.

Its hard to read because its hard to imagine someone being sold and trafficked from

India into Nepal and not being saved by boarder patrol because the victims are perceived as

discount humans, and its more important to save pirated goods.

But, its easy to read because informing oneself, opening ones heart and mind to the

cruelty and refrain of medical attention for infant girls in China with hope that shell die, or

the lack of education all over the world because education might make women good for

something, is important.

They are female, they are poor, and they are rural. These labels shouldnt be

preventing anyone from becoming something and having equal opportunity to do so.

This book is a must read for everyone because of how intense and real it is. People

need to know whats going on in the world and this book exploits the raw truth in an

unforgettable way.