Global Inequality is growing.
Together we can locate the levers of power and pull them defiantly in a new direction..
But The Defiant Optimist offers strategies for placing women, the underserved, and the planet at the heart of systems.
Changing how systems work--and who they work for --isn\'t for the faint of heart.
Finally, armed with financial backers and a plan, Shahnaz crafts the world\'s first tradeable financial product geared toward investing in underserved women\'s livelihoods.
Along the way, the birth of her two daughters only fuels her relentless pursuit of a world where girls are valued.
We go to a garment factory where Women labor for low wages, and to a town in India where microFinance offers Women enough capital to run grocery stores and tailor shops.
We accompany her to villages in Bangladesh where she helps Women entrepreneurs learn to proudly sign their names, and on visits to venture capitalists who walk past her to shake her male employees\' hands.
From growing up with constrained life chances, to working as the first Bangladeshi woman on Wall Street, to becoming a Global leader in impact investing, Shahnaz takes us on a mesmerizing trek of innovation, compassion, and enterprise.
In these pages, Shahnaz illuminates what investing in those excluded from networks of power and opportunity requires.
Defiant optimism--the stubborn belief that systems that enrich the few can be transformed for the good of the many--requires an indomitable spirit.
But what if we found the source of power and turned it inside out? What if we made the tools of the system available to all? When she launched the world\'s first stock exchange for social enterprises, Durreen Shahnaz started more than a new financial system; she sparked a movement.
Financial markets disenfranchise women, the 99 percent, and the planet itself.
Global Inequality is growing
