-
Women and girls across the globe face threats — trafficking, prostitution, violence, discrimination — every day of their lives. But hope endures....
Learn more >> -
Watch the film trailer, behind-the-scenes videos, and exclusive interviews with celebrity advocates and world leaders.
Learn more >> -
It was a journey that started a movement that's now changing the lives of women and girls around the world. Discover how you can get involved.
Learn more >>
Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into
Opportunity for Women Worldwide
Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into
Opportunity for Women Worldwide
A special presentation of Independent Lens
A landmark transmedia project featuring a four-hour PBS primetime national and international broadcast event (check local listings), a Facebook-hosted social action game, mobile games, two websites, educational video modules with companion text, a social media campaign supporting over 30 partner NGOs, and an impact assessment plan all inspired by Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, the widely acclaimed book by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn.
Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide was filmed in 10 countries and follows Kristof, WuDunn, and celebrity activists America Ferrera, Diane Lane, Eva Mendes, Meg Ryan, Gabrielle Union, and Olivia Wilde on a journey to tell the stories of inspiring, courageous individuals. Across the globe oppression is being confronted, and real meaningful solutions are being fashioned through health care, education, and economic empowerment for women and girls. The linked problems of sex trafficking and forced prostitution, gender-based violence, and maternal mortality — which needlessly claim one woman every 90 seconds — present to us the single most vital opportunity of our time: the opportunity to make a change. All over the world women are seizing this opportunity.
Gender-Based Violence

Gender makes women vulnerable to violence
The victimization of women and girls is one of the most common, yet least visible forms of oppression. Its effects go beyond the bruises and the fear to tear at the very fabric that holds families and communities together.
Read more >>Eva Mendes

Eva examines domestic violence in Sierra Leone
The star of Hitch and We Own the Night traveled with Nicholas Kristof to Sierra Leone to visit Amie Kandeh and the International Rescue Committee.
Read more >>The Authors

Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn
New York Times reporters and Pulitzer Prize winners Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn guide readers on an odyssey through Africa and Asia to meet the extraordinary women struggling there.
Read more >>The Filmmakers

Read the bios of the team behind the program
A team of veteran filmmakers collaborated to create to bring the stories and ideas of Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn's best-selling book to public television audiences nationwide.
Read more >>