Excerpts
SUMMARY: Journalists Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn have exposed widespread problems of abuse, sex trafficking and violence against women in Africa and Asia. Now they also bring their focus home, shining a light on the ways American women are commonly hurt, deprived and exploited. Jeffrey Brown talks to them about their new book and documentary series on PBS, “A Path Appears.”
GWEN IFILL (NewsHour): In a new report out today, the United Nations documents how girls simply trying to go to school face threats and violent attack in 70 countries.
That tracks with the stories on display in a PBS documentary series that ends tonight. “A Path Appears” expands that scope to explore violence against women more broadly and what can be done about it.
Jeffrey Brown has our conversation.
JEFFREY BROWN (NewsHour): Journalists Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn are well-known for their work on these subjects. Their prior collaboration, “Half the Sky,” first a book and then a series, took viewers around Africa and Asia.
This time, they have co-authored the book “A Path Appears,” which focuses on problems such as sex trafficking and abuse, including in this country. It’s also led to a series that’s been shown on PBS’ “Independent Lens.” The latest episode airs tonight.
Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn join me now from New York.
And, Nick Kristof, let me start with you.
One thing you have done in this series is put a spotlight on abuses here at home. Was that a particular concern, to bring it home, so to speak?
NICHOLAS KRISTOF, Co-Author, “A Path Appears”: Yes, it was.
“Half the Sky” focused on women’s rights abroad. And people kept asking us, well, what about the U.S.? And that seemed a fair question. The atrocities in many ways are worse in Afghanistan or Yemen, but we have real problems right here.
And it seemed to us that while the discussion about gender inequity in this country is often about pay equity or about representation of women in Congress or on boards, that really the two massive issues are sex trafficking — 100,000 underaged girls trafficked a year into the sex trade — and likewise domestic violence, three women every day killed by their domestic partners.
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NICHOLAS KRISTOF: I think that it’s very easy for those who have made it to construct a narrative in which those who are suffering are to blame for their own problems, and, you know, this notion of personal irresponsibility as being the all and end-all of poverty and disadvantage.
And we hope that by putting a human face on some these challenges, by humanizing them, we can help push back at that and underscore that, sure, there is a certain amount of personal irresponsibility there, but there also is an awful lot of kids who desperately need help, who didn’t do anything wrong.
And it’s a certain amount of social irresponsibility on the part of all of us if we don’t use the evidence-based solutions to try to give them a chance to get to the starting line.
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