Half the Sky summary

Figures like Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi were so successful as proponents of the peace movement largely because of their charisma. The global movement against sex trafficking would benefit a lot from having such leaders.

That’s why we need to invest more in emerging leaders like Zach Hunter, who formed Loose Change to Loosen Chains (LC2LC), a student-run campaign against modern slavery, when he was only in the seventh grade.

Here’s an appalling fact: women between the ages of 15 and 44 are more likely to be maimed or killed by male violence than by war, cancer, malaria and traffic accidents combined.

Rape and other violence toward women isn’t just a result of male libidos and opportunism. Sexism and misogyny are deeply rooted in our cultures.

Roughly five jumbo jets worth of women die in labor everyday, even though maternal mortality could easily be prevented. Even worse, this issue is almost never covered in the news.

Some of the more effective approaches to solving the problem aren’t even expensive or complicated. One study found that providing girls with a $6 uniform every 18 months increased their chances of staying in school and thus lowered the number of pregnancies. Keeping girls in school longer also delays marriage and pregnancy until the girls are old enough to give birth more safely. This illustrates that it’s not always medical problems that cause women to die during childbirth.

Each year, more and more people declare themselves atheists, but the majority of the world population is still religious. This has a big impact on gender equality.

Secular liberals and conservative Christians often square off on abortion, for instance. This is called the “God gulf” and it shapes American policies on family planning.

Education is vital to gender equality. It empowers women and girls to stand up for themselves and integrates them into the economy.

However, contrary to what most Americans think, building more schools isn’t the best way to increase education.