The New York Times Magazine on Sunday will publish a special issue on international womens rights. The cover story is an excerpt from Times columnist Nicholas Kristof and former Times correspondent Sheryl WuDunns book “Half the Sky Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide,” which will be published in September. In the book, Kristof and WuDunn write that the “paramount moral challenge” of the 21st century is “the brutality inflicted on so many women and girls around the globe sex trafficking, acid attacks, bride burnings and mass rape.” They write, “Yet if the injustices that women in poor countries suffer are of paramount importance, in an economic and geopolitical sense the opportunity they represent is even greater.” According to Kristof and WuDunn, there is a “growing recognition” from the World Bank, the U.S. militarys Joint Chiefs of Staff and aid organizations that “focusing on women and girls is the most effective way to fight global poverty and extremism.” In addition, “foreign aid is increasingly directed to women” through investment in microfinancing and education programs, they write, adding, “The world is awakening to a powerful truth Women and girls arent the problem; theyre the solution” (Kristof/WuDunn, New York Times Magazine, 8/23).

Times Magazine Features Interview With Sec. of State Clinton

The special issue also includes an interview with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who first “staked her claim as an advocate for global womens issues in 1995″ when she delivered a speech on the topic at a United Nations conference while she was first lady. In the interview, Clinton said the “transformation of womens roles is the last great impediment to universal progress.” She added that to make womens rights a central issue of U.S. foreign policy, “[y]ou have to recognize how deepseated” the cultural resistance to equal rights can be, and “reach an understanding of how without providing more rights and responsibilities for women, many of the goals we claim to pursue in our foreign policy are either unachievable or much harder to achieve.”

When asked if the Obama administration would have a “signature issue” with regard to womens rights, Clinton responded, “We are having as a signature issue the fact that women and girls are a core factor in our foreign policy.” She added that it is “not one specific program, so much as a policy.” Maternal health is a central part of the administrations global health agenda, Clinton said, adding that womens rights are included in “a number of strategic relationships” with countries such as India and China. When asked about genderbased violence such as the rape epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where she recently visited Clinton said that the Obama administration “will not tolerate this continuation of wanton, senseless, brutal violence perpetrated against girls and women.” She said that although the administration does not “know exactly what we can do,” the U.S. will “be delivering some aid and some ideas about how to better organize the communities to deal with it,” adding, “Were going to sound the alarm that this is not all just unexpected and irrational” (Landler, New York Times Magazine, 8/23).

Other Articles Examine Womens Issues

The special issue features several other articles about womens rights and related issues. Headlines appear below.

~ “A School Bus for Shamsia” (Filkins, New York Times Magazine, 8/17).

~ “Madame President Questions for Ellen Johnson Sirleaf” (Solomon, New York Times Magazine, 8/18).

~ “The Daughter Deficit” (Rosenberg, New York Times Magazine, 8/19).

~ “The Feminist Hawks” (Hefferman, New York Times Magazine, 8/19).

~ “The Power of the Purse” (Belkin, New York Times Magazine, 8/18).

~ “TruckStop Girls” (Maternowska, New York Times Magazine, 8/18).

Reprinted with kind permission from nationalpartnership.org. You can view the entire Daily Womens Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Womens Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.

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