Half The Sky pt. 2

All of the stories I felt left a huge impact on me but the first two about Female Genital Cutting and Prostitution stuck out to me the most. I can't choose one over the other. These two stories threw a lot of information about how women are treated and looked at in different parts of the world. It also gives us insights on what the women living in these conditions believe and how some of them have grown used to living the way that they do. I do not believe many people in the United States are fully aware. I do not think these situations are covered as much as they need to be. There was a quote that was said towards the beginning of the documentary, Edna Adan says "Unless they see the reality they'll never understand the severity of the situation." This hit me hard because it is one of the most truthful things I have heard. Even if people are to hear about this or be informed, they have no idea what it is like. Just like the head nurse Jayne Peters who shared that she has seen more women and babies die in 4 weeks than she has in the past 15 years.  The documentary itself is to help bring more attention to these issues. The next story about prostitution as well is something that I believe people are somewhat aware and know what is going on but they do not understand that this affects not only the women involved but the kids that these mothers have. They miss out on education and a opportunities for a different life. One of the women in this part of the documentary said she was sold to a brothel at the age of 13 and no matter what she was made to serve clients even while she is sick and if she or any of the other girls were to disobey they could possibly be killed. I personally knew very little about these situations and am glad to have gotten to learn more through this documentary.


My overall opinion about the film is that it was done well. I do want more documentaries like these to be shown everywhere to everyone. Hearing these stories bring awareness to the problems that affect the people around us. We may not all be living in the same place or born in the same place but we all are here in the same world. This documentary made me be more aware of the struggles women are facing everyday somewhere else across the world. Many of us go about our days fine where we get to wake up go to school, work, or just out in public with less worries. The women in this documentary have a very different experience and that people are there to stop these situations from being exposed. We may not experience the same situations but we still have our own issues even in the United States.  One issue that is still affecting people based on gender is the wage gap between men a women. I found a the NWLC page where it shows a map with the states shaded different colors representing the difference between the wage earned by women in 2023, the difference for women overall ranges from 70 cents to 85 cents or more. The website also allows you to see how women of different races are paid differently. It is ridiculous that men and women are working in the same fields with the same positions but will still make less. The pay that someone earns in my opinion should be based off of them actually showing up to their job and doing the work they need to do. Limits should not be based on gender or their race. 


Wage Gap Map



National Women’s Law Center. (2025, February 21). The wage gap, state by state. https://nwlc.org/resource/wage-gap-state-by-state/

Half_the_sky_2. University of Nebraska Kearney Media Library. (2012). https://unk.yuja.com/V/Video?v=9278244&node=39627514&a=162004541&autoplay=1

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