Introduction

 

"Far more women and girls are shipped into brothels each year in the early twenty-first century than African slaves were shipped into slave nations each year in the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries” (Half the Sky 11). This quote comes from the book Half the Sky, a novel written by anthropologists Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, which explores the impact of women in third world countries and how their contributions would be life changing for the developing world if women were encouraged to move away from societal norms of taking care of the home and kids. One topic that is thoroughly discussed is sex trafficking. In developing countries the act of selling daughters, granddaughters, and nieces into brothels in exchange for money has become extremely commonplace. As a result, the girls are stripped of their dignity, their pride, and most importantly, their freedom. The young girls whose virginities are sold to the highest bidder possess rights that are more commonly attributed to slaves than free women. Half the Sky exposes the horrors that young girls are put through in order for their pimps to make money. There are varying degrees of child prostitution in places such as Cambodia, India, China, and parts of Africa; however, in each situation, the girls were forced into a life of submission, and are rarely ever granted the freedom that women deserve. Despite the less than positive subject matter of Half the Sky, the central goal of the book is to show that “women aren’t the problem but the solution. The plight of girls is no more a tragedy than an opportunity” (Half the Sky, xviii). As these girls and young women struggle between freedom and slavery, they provide insight into the strength and determination of women and prove that their skills are a valuable resource for their struggling countries.