Egyptian Made
Women, Work, and the Promise of Liberation
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- US$12.99
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An incisive exploration of women and work, showing how globalization’s promise of liberation instead set the stage for repression—from the acclaimed author of Factory Girls
“Vividly rendered . . . Chang brings us into living rooms and onto assembly lines with female characters as captivating as they are complex. . . . [She] blazingly captures all that chaos and personality.”—The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice)
What happens to the women who choose to work in a country struggling to reconcile a traditional culture with the demands of globalization? In this sharply drawn portrait of Egyptian society—deepened by two years of immersive reporting—Leslie T. Chang follows three women as they persevere in a country that throws up obstacles to their progress at every step, from dramatic swings in economic policy to conservative marriage expectations and a failing education system.
Working in Egypt’s centuries-old textile industry, Riham is a shrewd businesswoman who nevertheless struggles to attract workers to her garment factory and to compete in the global marketplace. Rania, who works on a factory assembly line, attempts to climb to a management rank but is held back by conflicts with co-workers and the humiliation of an unhappy marriage. Her colleague Doaa, meanwhile, pursues an education and independence but sacrifices access to her own children in order to get a divorce.
Alongside these stories, Chang shares her own experiences living and working in Egypt for five years, seeing through her own eyes the risks and prejudices that working women continue to face. She also weaves in the history of Egypt’s vaunted textile industry, its colonization and independence, a century of political upheaval, and the history of Islam in Egypt, all of which shaped the country as it is today and the choices available to Riham, Rania, and Doaa. Following each woman’s story from home and work, Chang powerfully observes the near-impossible balancing act that Egyptian women strike every day.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Women in Cairo walk the tightrope between traditional values and the globalized economy in this immersive and sharply observed account from journalist Chang (Factory Girls). In some developing countries, growth in the manufacturing sector has led to an increase in women's employment, education, and basic rights, but Chang asserts that this has not happened in Egypt, where cultural restrictions on women have clamped down rather than eased up. (Any woman who wants to work must have her father's or husband's permission, which is often denied.) Chang profiles individual women she followed over the course of two years, including Riham, a rare female factory-owner, whose attempts to support her female employees and promote a familial work environment eventually gave way to a more authoritarian approach that emulated "the anonymity of the modern factory floor." While Chang partially attributes this coarsening effect to the obstacles raised by traditional values, she likewise, and more bitingly, blames the leveling effect of globalization, which by pushing for uniformity and ever-greater productivity, squeezes women with family commitments out of the workforce and breeds reactionary politics. Chang's cogent analysis and lyric impressions (women arriving at work "hug and kiss... as if they've been apart for months or years rather than just one day") are threaded with insight into Egypt's political and economic history. It's an eye-opener.
