Half the Sky

by Nicholas D. Kristof

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

The global statistics on the abuse of girls are numbing. 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.

Female infanticide persists in many countries, and often it is mothers who kill their own daughters.

“You educate a boy, and you’re educating an individual,” Greg says, quoting an African proverb. “You educate a girl, and you’re educating an entire village.”

That is the power of education. One study after another has shown that educating girls is one of the most effective ways to fight poverty.

Increasing women’s control over resources, even in the short run, will improve their say within the household, which will increase … child nutrition and health.

Women now own just 1 percent of the world’s titled land, according to the UN.

Rwanda is consciously implementing policies that empower and promote women—and, perhaps partly as a result, it is one of the fastest-growing economies in Africa. In some respects, in everything but size, Rwanda is now the China of Africa.