Globalization and its Discontents: Stories from the Factory Floors of China and Egypt

The Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs program on Global Economics, Development and Political Economy presents  “Globalization and its Discontents: Stories from the Factory Floors of China and Egypt” with Leslie Chang. 

In Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China, Leslie Chang followed young women who left rural China to work in the booming factories of Dongguan. More than a decade later, in Egyptian Made: Women, Work, and the Promise of Liberation, she turned to women navigating work and economic change in Egypt. In this talk, Chang draws on both books to compare how globalization and factory work have transformed women’s lives in two very different societies. Through the stories of workers she came to know, she explores how paid employment can reshape women’s aspirations, independence, and relationships—and the economic and social constraints that continue to limit the promise of liberation.

Leslie Chang is an award-winning author and journalist. Leslie T. Chang has written about women in the developing world for two decades. Her book Factory Girls was named a New York Times Notable Book and has been translated into ten languages. Chang is a recipient of the PEN USA Literary Award, the Asian American Literary Award, the Tiziano Terzani International Literary Prize, the Quality Paperback Book Club New Visions Award, and the Alicia Patterson Foundation Fellowship.