"Originally published in hardcover in slightly different form in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, in 2009"--Title page verso

Includes bibliographical references (pages 261-280) and index

Introduction- The Girl Effect--Emancipating twenty-first-century slaves -- Fighting slavery from Seattle -- Prohibition and prostitution-Rescuing girls is the easy part -- Learning to speak up- The new abolitionists -- Rule by rape -Mukhtar's school -- The shame of "honor" -- study abroad--in the Congo -- Maternal mortality -- One woman a minute-A doctor who treats countries, not patients -- Why do women die in childbirth? -- Edna's hospital -- Family planning and the "God Gulf" -- Jane Roberts and her 34 million friends -- Is Islam misogynistic? -The Afghan insurgent -- Investing in education -- Ann and Angeline -- Microcredit : the financial revolution -- A CARE package for Goretti -- The axis of equality -- Tears over Time magazine -- Grassroots vs. Treetops -- Girls helping girls -- What you can do -- Four steps you can take in the next ten minutes--Appendix: organizations supporting women--Acknowledgments--Notes--Index

"With Pulitzer Prize winners Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn as our guides, we undertake an odyssey through Africa and Asia to meet the extraordinary women struggling there, among them a Cambodian teenager sold into sex slavery and an Ethiopian woman who suffered devastating injuries in childbirth. Drawing on the breadth of their combined reporting experience, Kristof and WuDunn depict our world with anger, sadness, clarity, and, ultimately, hope

They show how a little help can transform the lives of women and girls abroad. That Cambodian girl eventually escaped from her brothel and, with assistance from an aid group, built a thriving retail business that supports her family. The Ethiopian woman had her injuries repaired and in time became a surgeon. A Zimbabwean mother of five, counseled to return to school, earned her doctorate and became an expert on AIDS

Through these stories, Kristof and WuDunn help us see that the key to economic progress lies in unleashing women's potential. They make clear how so many people have helped to do just that, and how we can each do our part. Throughout much of the world, the greatest unexploited economic resource is the female half of the population. Countries such as China have prospered precisely because they emancipated women and brought them into the formal economy. Unleashing that process globally is not only the right thing to do; it's also the best strategy for fighting poverty."--Pub. desc

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