Half The Sky: How to Change the World

Posted by Emily Rowland in Recommended Reading

FACT: More girls have been killed in the last fifty years, precisely because they are girls, than men were killed in all the wars of the twentieth century combined.

FACT: This routine ‘gendercide’, which manifests in particularly in the developing world, is becoming one of the biggest worldwide threats – it is even bound up with the global economy.

FACT: We don’t have to rely on the greater powers to change the fortunes of these women and our world.

On 5th August, Virago publish Half the Sky by Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting team Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn – a call to arms against the most pervasive human rights violation of the 21st century: the oppression of women in the developing world. Fierce, moral, pragmatic, full of amazing stories of courage and inspiration, Half The Sky is essential reading for everyone concerned about the world today.

To raise awareness about what many consider is the central moral challenge of this century, we are encouraging people to find out more about the scale of the problem, how this situation came to be and what we can all do about it.

We’ll be posting extracts and statistics from the book every day until publication, along with latest news and updates as we start spreading the word.

Here’s what you can do to get involved:

1) Read an extract here
2) Join the movement at www.halftheskymovement.org
3) Share the conversation and follow @ViragoBooks and #HalfTheSky on Twitter for updates
4) Read what others are saying about this book:

‘It’s impossible to stand by and do nothing after reading Half the Sky’
George Clooney

‘These stories show us the power and resilience of women who would have every reason to give up but never do… you will not want to put this book down’
Angelina Jolie

‘A thrilling manifesto for advancing freedom for hundreds of millions of human beings’
Johann Hari

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