Women used to be thought the lesser sex, but they have always carried heavy burdens for humanity. Not just emotional burdens, but physical ones, too—necessities such as firewood, water, food, fabric, transported for miles. The Indian-born American photographer Lekha Singh knows about such sacrifice. Over the last 25 years she has traveled the world, documenting the plight of little-known communities where hardship and destitution is rampant. Photographs of women who carry the world on their shoulders populate her latest exhibition. —Elena Clavarino