NONFICTION
Arguing that female empowerment will save the globe
What if you could solve some of the world’s major problems by just empowering a gender?
According to Michelle Goldberg, it’s simpler than it seems. When it comes to women’s rights, policy reform, to her, is a back and forth worldwide beat-down that not only lacks clear answers, but clarity about what the questions should be.
And if instruction was her goal, Goldberg has succeeded.
Her latest work, “The Means of Reproduction: Sex, Power and the Future of the World,” is anything but the broad, ambitious work it appears to be at first glance. Instead, Goldberg takes readers into the world of women’s rights using anecdotes and putting a face on issues including abortion, female circumcision and family planning.
Though labeled as investigative journalism, “The Means of Reproduction” occasionally reads more like a book report full of dry statistics and too many names to keep straight. Intermingled, though, is the gold: the explanation, in many cases, as to why things are the way they are, and why they continue to be so.
Rather than simply condemn those who impede the progress of women’s rights, Goldberg takes the time to explain how issues like female genital mutilation in parts of Africa, Asia and the Middle East could actually be supported by men and women alike.
In many countries, Goldberg explains, the subordination of women is tied in with culture and custom, and in an effort to resist the impact of Western ideals destroying culture, change is opposed. When speaking on funding to stop female genital mutilation, one source replied: “Let donors keep their money; we will keep our culture.”
Goldberg also exposes female support for practices like female genital mutilation and female infanticide in certain areas because such practices are so intertwined into the culture.
Author of New York Times best seller “Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism,” Goldberg shows how important laws and policies involving women’s rights sway with political leadership, the mood of the times, religion and who is in charge of the United States at any particular moment.
Particularly notable was the author’s contention that the United States only began to promote “family planning” in the form of birth control as a means to stop population booms in communist countries.
And in this political game, women’s rights are as unpredictable as a roll of the dice, with the battle for abortion rights, sexual health and overall policies not based on fact, but politics.
Through her work, the most important lesson to take is how empowering women can change the course of globalized problems, like the AIDS epidemic. Her closing chapter, “Sex and Chaos,” stands out as a particularly interesting closure to this very thick, yet very interesting, work. Goldberg’s message, that the world’s problems cannot be solved without ceasing the subordination of a gender, connects throughout every passage.
Goldberg’s book might be a tough sell for anyone looking for light summer reading. But if you’ve ever wondered, “why?” when it comes to the abortion debate, the spread of HIV, and so many more issues that impact women’s lives across the globe, this spider-webbed true tale should top your list.
Stephanie Sciandra is a copy editor at The News this summer.
The Means of Reproduction: Sex, Power and the Future of the World
By Michelle Goldberg
Penguin Press 272 pages, $25.95
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