Half the Sky by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn

The Smith College summer reading selection for 2010 is Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. Copies are available in Neilson Library.

Sheryl WuDunn will join us during orientation to discuss "Half the Sky" on Wednesday, Sept. 1 at 7 p.m. See the press release on the Smith College news site for more information.

Half the Sky lays out an agenda for the world's women and three major abuses: sex trafficking and forced prostitution; gender-based violence including honor killings and mass rape; maternal mortality, which needlessly claims one woman a minute. We know there are many worthy causes competing for attention in the world. We focus on this one because this kind of oppression feels transcendent – and so does the opportunity. Outsiders can truly make a difference. Visit Half the Sky Movement website to learn more.

For more information about the book and the summer reading program for first-year and entering students, please see the Summer Reading website, which will be updated with information about this selection over the summer.

Read an excerpt, or view the table of contents. Visit the Random House web page devoted to the book.

Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn are co-authors of Half the Sky. Kristof writes an Op-Ed column for The New York Times. WuDunn is an investment advisor, with a focus on philanthropy. Together, they won a Pulitzer Prize for their coverage of China. They have also won a George Polk Award and an Overseas Press Club Award.

Kristof also won a second Pulitzer Prize for his commentary on human rights issues, along with the Michael Kelly Award, the Online News Association Award and the ASNE Award. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard College and then studied law at the University of Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship, graduating with first-class honors.

WuDunn, the first Asian-American to win a Pulitzer, has been an executive at The New York Times and worked in finance at Goldman Sachs and Bankers Trust. She graduated from Cornell University, and has master’s degrees from Harvard Business School and Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School.

Together, they have also written two previous books about Asia - Thunder from the East: Portrait of a Rising Asia and China Wakes: The Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power.

Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, authors of Half the Sky (Photo by Geoffrey Kristof)

Thunder from the East

China Wakes