“When a man partners with a strong woman, everyone benefits…. What I find remarkable is that more men around the globe don’t realize how much stronger they would be if partnered with a strong woman.Way too often and in too many corners of the globe, women are denied the opportunity to reach their full potential. It’s wrong and it’s backward, and of course, the irony is that by keeping women down, men lose out too.”
—Bill Gates, Sr.
This quote is from Mr. Gates’ review of the Best Selling book, Half the Sky, by Pulitzer Prize winning authors Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. To read the full review (which you should!) go here. More importantly read the book. I can’t imagine a more urgent issue for us today—what the authors describe as “the paramount moral challenge” of the 21st Century. Christians should be (and thank God growing numbers are) on the forefront in addressing the brutal mistreatment of women and girls throughout the world.
Carolyn Custis James 
Hi Carolyn, I work in the developing world & constantly see how women are mistreated & not given the chance to reach their full potential.
It makes me wonder why it is that men feel the need to do this but more puzzling to me is why we as women allow it?
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If you read the book you will quickly discover this has nothing to do with allowing mistreatment. The power others (not just men, but also women) hold over powerless women and girls is chilling. A girl doesn't have much to say about becoming a female-infanticide statistic or a gang rape victim. And woman and young girls who are seeking ways to help their struggling families financially are deceived and trafficked into the sex trade.
Do read the book. It is an eye-opener!
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I agree with recommendation to read book. My 17 yr old daughter read the book and passed it on to me. Fostering dynamic dialogue between generations is probably one of the most powerful tools I've experienced to create real change. It's typically me recommending books to her…nice to see my daughter becoming a strong ezer and finding ways to shape my behavior as well.
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Teen-ezers are a major untapped resource for the Kingdom. They can make a difference in the world, and it's heartening to hear about your daughter's passion about this crucial issue and that she's influencing her mom!
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As I re-read anonymous' comment, I realized I may have misread you. If you were referring to why “we” allow the mistreatment of other women to continue, then I'm with you all the way. The good thing is there is now a groundswell of concern and activism among many to raise awareness and do whatever we can to combat this.
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It's astonishing to me that there are people who don't know how poorly women are sometimes treated. A fellow student commented this week on the hanging of the maids in The Penelopiad (based on the Odyssey) that she didn't know anybody was ever treated that poorly by a culture. Kind of nice that that kind of innocence still exists, but so astonishing that someone could be that unaware. It's not like honor killings and the like don't still happen, routinely, in some other parts of the world, and even among people of certain subgroups in the US. Issues in the treatment of women, even in the US, is so far from being trumped up claptrap from feminists with a bee in their collective bonnet, as I've heard some people imply (regarding the US, anyway); it's so real.
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