In “Sewing Women” professor Margaret Chin ventures into the veiled world of garment shops located in the Lower Manhattan Chinatown. The book provides readers with the rare views and voices of the women who work in these garment shops, and investigates how they came, why they came and how it is where they currently are.

One thing that I particularly liked is that Chin took the time to incorporate actual quotes in the beginnings and throughout the chapters to establish what each chapter would be about. At the end of each chapter she also summarized what each chapter was about which made the information more retainable and clear.

Having had the privilege of hearing professor Chin talk about how experiences in writing the book, what I found even more fascinating was how sometimes she would spend weeks in the same garment shop, interviewing and speaking to all the workers, and suddenly one day one of them would just be gone. I found this interesting because it shows how the lives of these women were really quite difficult and a lot like a dangerous journey. One thing I wish the book had was an epilogue at the end following up on the lives of the women at the garment shops a few laters.