I first learned about the Half the Sky Movement when New York Times journalist Nicholas Kristof came to Syracuse University to give a lecture in 2011.

The movement is concerned with bringing attention to the suffering women around the globe endure from being denied economic, social, educational, and political opportunities.

The movement’s website abounds with useful and sometimes shocking information about the plight of women around the world who suffer because of their gender.

The “Economic Empowerment” page on the organization’s website gives some chilling insights into the plight of women around the globe, such as the fact that 70 percent of the world’s poorest people are women. According to the movement, this is mainly due to the fact that large numbers of women around the globe do not have access to education.

Among the over 400 million children worldwide who are denied the opportunity to attend school, more than half of those children are female.

So what is Half the Sky doing about it?

Firstly, they’re drawing attention to the issue. Celebrity endorsements are an excellent way to capture people’s attention and encourage them to act. More than anything, if we wish to help the situation at all, we first must instill a major shift in perspective.

I can personally attest to the fact that the extent of women’s plight is not as well-understood as it should be; I had no idea that so many millions of women and girls were affected by structural and gender violence until listening to Kristof’s lecture.

In addition to their text-based information, the movement’s website offers 18 short videos that portray different aspects of the plight of women and the empowerment of women, from domestic abuse to reproductive health and business planning.

The best thing about Half the Sky’s website is that it provides facts and insights all in one consolidated place for anyone who is interested in finding out more about the plight of the world’s women, and it also showcases ways to get involved.

The first step to achieving change is to ensure that more people are educated about the problem so that we can effectively work toward a definitive solution, and that is precisely what Half the Sky is doing.

Related articles

• How To Change The World? (jameswharris.wordpress.com)
• Educate a Woman, Build a Nation (girlsglobe.org)
• Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide (realrest.wordpress.com)
• B.E.A.D Project (empoweringwomenthroughtraditionalcrafts.wordpress.com)