Half the Sky

by Nicholas D. Kristof

Less than 1 percent of U.S. foreign aid is specifically targeted to women and girls.

It appears that more girls have been killed in the last fifty years, precisely because they were girls, than men were killed in all the wars of the twentieth century. More girls are killed in this routine “gendercide” in any one decade than people were slaughtered in all the genocides of the twentieth century.

In the nineteenth century, the central moral challenge was slavery. In the twentieth century, it was the battle against totalitarianism. We believe that in this century the paramount moral challenge will be the struggle for gender equality in the developing world.

But when a woman does stand up, it’s imperative that outsiders champion her; we also must nurture institutions to protect such people.