Egyptian Made by Leslie T. Chang

EGYPTIAN MADE by Leslie T. Chang is an intriguing look at “Women, Work, and the Promise of Liberation.” Chang, an award-winning author, contrasts the stories of female factory workers in Egypt with those of the women she interviewed in China for her previous text, Factory Girls. The patterns that appeared as a result of cultural differences (e.g., roughly one-third of women are illiterate and it is estimated that less than one fourth of women in Egypt work outside the home) were eye-opening. Chang argues that globalization has actually had a negative impact on women working in Egypt where pressures from families and husbands in an increasingly conservative society are limiting opportunities for women. She profiles three women in depth (Rania, a new factory supervisor working to escape an unhappy marriage; Doaa, who wants to become a social worker after her divorce; and Riham who wants to run her own clothing factory). Chang is living in Colorado now and I sincerely hope she is working on her next study. Library Journal compared this book to Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed which was a part of the high school curriculum for years. Readers may want to pair the very informative EGYPTIAN MADE with Getting Me Cheap or other recent texts on workers’ rights or with any of several books about global forces and the Middle East specifically.