Issue: Women

I will be amazed if anyone is still checking this blog, but here comes a post anyway! It has been a long hiatus, and I apologize. In the past couple of months, we bought a house, moved across the country, changed jobs, finished one thesis (my husband's) and started another (mine)--and of course, there's always that thing where we're chasing a toddler (or rather, waddling behind a toddler, since I'm third-trimester-pregnant). We are settled into our new home now, internet access and all, so I think that I will be returning you to your regularly scheduled blog-programming.

Today I mostly just have a recommendation. Last week a friend forwarded me an amazing article that was recently published in the New York Times. This article, "The Women's Crusade," was written by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. If Kristof's name sounds familiar to you, it might be because of his regular Times column that often addresses, among other social issues, global women's issues. Past columns have covered topics like sex trafficking, maternal health and obstetric fistula, and mass rape as an element of warfare. (You can access a full list of his columns here.)

Kristof and WuDunn (who are married to each other) have written a new book called Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Worldwide, which is scheduled to be released in early September. In preparation for the book release, the Times published an excerpt from the book under the title "The Women's Crusade." Please take some time to go read this article. If it is any indication of the quality of the book, you can bet I will be reviewing the rest of the book soon. "The Women's Crusade" is an excellent introduction to a number of issues that affect women around the world, such as domestic violence, poverty, bride burning, sex-selective abortion, sex slavery, maternal mortality, health, education, etc. etc. I hope to delve more deeply into some of these topics in future blog posts, but for now the excerpt from the book will provide you will a good overview, and a sense of why these issues are so urgent.