GW Screens PBS Special Half the Sky

By  Jessy Morner-Ritt

Ambassadors from Half the Sky, a world-wide organization based on raising awareness of women's issues and providing steps for women to empower themselves, will be hosting on Wednesday a screening of the in-depth making of the documentary the organization is named after. The event will take place at the Dorothy Betts Theater inside the Marvin Center from 5:45 to 7:45pm.  Following the screening, a panel discussion with GW Professors will take place. 

The documentary is based on the book Half the Sky: Turning Opression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide.  September 2009, the wife-husband team of Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn published the book “Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide.”  The book presents the global, moral challenges of our present era; these issues being the sex trafficking, maternal mortality, sexual violence, micro-finance and the indifference of girls’ education that overrun the lives of far too many. 

“It’s such an important issue, a global crisis that has not been addressed to the extent it should be," GW Half the Sky Campus Ambassador Emily Isaac said.  "As the authors said, it is the most important movement of our time.  We as privileged young women have the social responsibility to empower young girls and women around the world." 

The book moved beyond its pages to inspire the current organization, Half the Sky.  Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide has been turned into a four-hour television series for PBS and international broadcast. The documentary was shot in ten countries following reporter Nicholas Kristof and celebrity advocates America Ferrera, Diane Lane, Eva Mendes, Meg Ryan, Gabrielle Union and Olivia Wilde. The ten countries are each home to women and girls who live in difficult conditions but still fight for a better life. The series aired earlier this week.

The event is sponsored by GW’s Delta Phi Epsilon Professional Foreign Service Sorority.

Half the Sky is working to become a student organization that is open to anyone who can advocate worldwide.  Anyone interested in becoming involved can contact Rachel Landau.  

To learn more about Half the Sky, watch the trailer to the documentary and check out their 
website below. 

Trailer:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JbWA-6GDn4
Website: http://www.halftheskymovement.org/pages/movement