egyptian made

What happens to the women who choose to work in a country struggling to reconcile a traditional culture with the demands of globalization? In Egyptian Made: Women, Work, and the Promise of Liberation (Random House, 2024), Leslie T. Chang takes an incisive look at whether work is empowering, or merely another system that echoes deeply entrenched biases and disenfranchisement. In this sharply drawn portrait of Egyptian society—deepened by two years of immersive reporting—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.

Egyptian made cover
Takes us halfway across the world and inside the lives of women caught between tradition and independence.”
- Monica Potts, author of The Forgotten Girls 
Essential reading for anyone who cares about women in the Arab world.”
- Nell Freudenberger, author of Lost and Wanted
An intimate window into the varied lives, triumphs, sorrows and dreams of women in contemporary Egypt.”
- Anna Badkhen, author of Bright Unbearable Reality

About the author

Leslie T. Chang has written about women in the developing world for two decades. Her reporting method is to immerse herself in the daily lives of ordinary women to find stories that are often unknown to the outside world.

Leslie T. Chang

factory girls

China has 150 million migrant workers—the largest migration in human history. Though we rely on cheap goods made in China, few Westerners have been inside the factories that provide us with the sneakers, luxury handbags, mobile phones, and computers we depend upon. In Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China (Random House, 2008), Leslie T. Chang tells the story of these workers who labor countless hours to provide us with the material goods we take for granted. Factory Girls is told primarily through the lives of two young women from rural villages, whom Chang follows over the course of three years as they attempt to rise from the assembly lines of Dongguan, an industrial city in China's Pearl River Delta.

Factory Girls cover

Contact

For media queries

London M. King at Random House
212-572-2693
loking@penguinrandomhouse.com

For all other queries

Chris Calhoun
212-775-9090
chris@chriscalhounagency.com