Egyptian Made: Women, Work, and the Promise of Liberation

In an exploration of women and work, journalist Leslie T. Chang follows three Egyptian women as the traditional culture of their society struggles to reconcile with the demands presented by globalization.

EGYPTIAN MADE: WOMEN, WORK, AND THE PROMISE OF LIBERATION was an informative and eye-opening read. I learned much about Egyptian history, culture, and workforce (particularly the garment industry) with specific emphasis on working women in Egyptian society and the prejudices and risks they face. Mixed in with the historical material and interviews, Chang provided her own experiences of living in Egypt for five years. Aside from a few areas that felt mildly repetitive, the book was well-written and did not shy away from showing all show more aspects of the women’s lives. There’s no saccharine editing to be found here.

If you purchase mass produced clothing and have never considered how it’s made, read this book – the person who stitched together your underwear has a story. show less

Fascinating Examination Of Modern Egyptian Work And Culture. As an American who has only briefly left the US, and never left the Caribbean region when leaving the US, it was fascinating to read such a detailed account of modern Egyptian work and culture as seen through the eyes of an American who lived there for a few years and who actively examined what she saw while there. From a sheer cultural studies perspective, this work was interesting indeed. As an examination of women's place in society in Egypt, it was also fascinating in several different aspects - while there is *some* similarity to *some* minority groups in the US, this was largely a very different concept than how America operates, both in actuality and in vision. Even the show more work culture of the males shown within is so *vastly* different than American business and work culture, and Chang shows how this is largely the result of Socialist / Nationalist policies from generations ago that became so deeply embedded within the culture at large that no effort to reign them back in has been very successful.

The singular glaring weakness here is the absolute lack of any bibliography at all, at least in the Advance Review Copy edition I read. Indeed, it must be noted, that while I am accustomed to ARCs being "not in final form"... this was also one of the most incomplete ARCs I've ever been given access to. There were quite often threads that would end in "to investigate later" or some such, or "place chart here" or similar, among other issues of this type. Not enough to truly detract from the overall narrative, and certainly not anything to deduct a star over - I know the score with ARCs. But this being truly the most incomplete such book I've ever encountered needed to be noted, as it *did* impact my overall experience with the text.

Overall, this was truly a fascinating examination of a culture I've never experienced and likely *will* never experience, and I trust that the fully released version won't have the incompleteness of what I was given, negating the only criticism I had here. Very much recommended. show less