Half The Sky: Women’s & Gender Information and Newsletter at NEC & Beyond
Women hold up half the sky. - Chinese Proverb
Welcome to Half the Sky, a news and information letter provided by Women’s & Gender Studies at New England College.
The title for this information link is taken from a Chinese proverb that recognizes the importance of women’s contributions to the world through a very simple observation: More than half of the world’s population is female. This fact has often been lost in our efforts to recognize women’s work and the reality of their lives in the global village that is our world.
Alternately attributed to Confucius and Mao Zedong, among others, it’s not clear how old the proverb is, but the message is plain: without the sky staying in its place life would not be possible. It takes a lot of work to make life possible and this succinct proverb allows us to recognize that at least half of that work is done by women.
Ancient or not, this adage has received a wider contemporary audience through the efforts of Nicholas D. Kristoff and Sheryl Wudunn who co-authored a book with Half the Sky as their title. What Kristoff and Wudunn have done is link this bit of wisdom to women’s and girls’ lives around the world in an effort to address the often brutal realities women and young girls face everyday simply because they are female. But the book does not stop there. In fact, the full title says it all: Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. By bringing awareness of women’s lives together with practical solutions for change, their work can be seen as the result of a number of historical developments in the past century that have created a global conversation on the importance of recognizing women as a key link in the attainment of a better world for all.
Women worldwide are now, more than ever, in a position to change the conditions of their lives and to receive recognition and respect for their work and their person-hood as equal partners in ‘holding up the sky.’
To learn more click here!
The Global Women’s Movement
The success of the book Half the Sky speaks to decades of work by women and the men who support their cause to raise awareness and change the conditions of women’s and young girls lives on a local and now international level.
The very fact of a global conversation in which the role of women and their right to be full and equal participants in their societies -- afforded the same protections and opportunities as men -- is a measure of how much has been accomplished as a result of this on-going movement.
http://www.womenforwomen.org/help-women/half-the-sky.php
