NY Times Magazine focuses on women

From Nicholas Kristof's Blog:

The New York Times Sunday Magazine is going to have a special issue on Aug. 23 devoted to women in the developing world. This is the first time the magazine has done something quite like this, and we’re all excited here. The lead article will be an excerpt from “Half the Sky,” the book that my wife and I have written about this topic (the book comes out Sept. 8), and everything else in the issue will also be themed to the topic. We’re also going to try to highlight, in print and online, some of the aid organizations that do important work in this space, so that readers who want to get engaged will have some ideas about how they can follow up.

The magazine has also sent two photographers around the world on assignment to capture photos for the issue, so the art should be fabulous. All in all, it’ll be a very memorable treatment of an issue that increasingly is being seen as central to economic development. One of the reasons for this issue — and for “Half the Sky” — is that there’s growing recognition that if you want to fight poverty and extremism, you need to educate and empower women and bring them into the economy. A country can’t grow and be stable if half the population is marginalized.

Part of this magazine special issue will involve a “Half the Sky Contest” that we’ll announce when the issue comes out. I could tell you more, but then I’d have to kill you. And if you have ideas for the issue (particularly online, since planning is well underway for the print issue), let us know by commenting below.