Helping world’s oppressed women

John C. Bersia

When asked about her aspirations for "Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide," Sheryl WuDunn demurely mentions that the work speaks for itself and she hopes it will inspire people to action. Upon catching wind of a naysayer's opinion that efforts to free women from subjugation may cause more harm than good, though, she rises with unexpected sternness.

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WuDunn then declares that she — a woman of Chinese ethnicity — is glad her forebears did not hesitate to rail against foot-binding. Otherwise, her mother (who is sitting nearby and nods in agreement) and she — had they remained in China — would likely have been pressured into a painful tradition: the breaking and folding of women’s feet into the so-called golden lotus shape.

This is the same Wu- Dunn who, in an earlier incarnation, shared a Pulitzer Prize in international reporting with husband Nicholas Kristof for coverage of the mass-protest movement in China culminating in the 1989 Tiananmen Square tragedy. Today, no longer a journalist — but still professionally teamed up with Kristof, her “Half the Sky” co-author — Wu- Dunn calls upon the skills she honed in that profession to confront moral dilemmas. In the 19th century, the central moral challenge was slavery, she contends, and in the 20th, it was the battle against totalitarianism. This century, the paramount moral challenge will be the struggle for gender equality in the developing world, she says.

Such thinking summons a kindred spirit in me. The issue of equal rights and opportunities for women long ago secured a permanent place on my list of personal priorities. I worked briefly in that field for the U.S. government during graduate school, but my efforts since then have concentrated mainly on using pen and persuasion to highlight inequities for women and urge constructive change. In that direction lies a safer, fairer, happier, stronger and more prosperous world.

The list of problems women shoulder is lengthy. In her book, WuDunn examines: forced abortion, bride-burning, maiming, blinding, hunger, wife-beating, poverty, slavery, second- class citizenship, meager or no education, female infanticide, inadequate health care, rape, gender discrimination, female genital mutilation, fistulas, honor killings, child marriage and sexual harassment.

But the challenge is not insurmountable. Indeed, WuDunn’s book draws to an end on an optimistic note, with useful advice on ways for concerned individuals to make a difference. Go to www.globalgiving.com or www.kiva.org, she urges, both people-to-people sites that enable you to connect directly with those in need. Or sponsor a girl or woman through any number of worthy organizations, such as Women for Women International at www.womenforwomen.org. She also suggests signing up for e-mail updates about women’s issues from www.womensenews.org or www.worldpulse.com, and joining the CARE Action Network at www.can.care.org. She concludes with a helpful list of dozens of organizations that support women. Well, WuDunn is right. Her work does speak for itself — with a loud, informed and urgent voice. It is truly a blueprint for the average person to begin helping the oppressed women of the world.

John C. Bersia, who won a Pulitzer Prize in editorial writing for the Orlando Sentinel in 2000, is the special assistant to the president for global perspectives at the University of Central Florida. Readers may send him e-mail at johncbersia@msn.com.