Award-winning author and journalist Sheryl WuDunn challenged UW-Madison students and community members to think about socioeconomic inequalities in America during a visit to campus Tuesday.
WuDunn kicked off this semester’s Distinguished Lecture Series by discussing the newly published “A Path Appears: Transforming Lives, Creating Opportunity,” a book she co-authored with her husband, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof.
She began her lecture by introducing the wealth gap apparent in America and questioning whether the United States is still “the land of opportunity.”
“There’s this growing trend of inequality, it’s sort of creating a bigger gap between the rich and poor,” WuDunn said in an interview with The Daily Cardinal. “President Obama said that it’s the ‘defining challenge of our time.’”
WuDunn said the best way to combat social inequality is through strengthening maternal attachment with children prior to the age of five, emphasizing that whether a child experiences parental affection by 3 1/2 years old is a better predictor of high school graduation than IQ levels.
In a similar fashion to her book, WuDunn highlighted both the problems and the solutions to social inequalities by using anecdotes and stories, stressing the importance of storytelling as a method of bringing people into the cause and spreading the message.
WuDunn said traveling the country to meet new people and discover their stories was one of her favorite parts about writing “A Path Appears.”
“There are so many people who are doing amazing things and they just have not had their voice heard,” she said.
UW-Madison sophomore Chet Agni said he enjoyed the lecture because WuDunn and her stories are inspirational, which is difficult when dealing with topics such as rape and social injustices.
“I feel like a lot of times people don’t want to hear about [issues around the world] because they are saddening and disheartening, but then when you look at … what you can do about it, it can be very hopeful,” Agni said. “It was definitely not something that bummed me out ... it was very a hopeful, happy, inspiring presentation.”
