– An inspirational real-life story of fighting gender inequality, global inequality, and reinventing finance for women
– Follows the real-life stories of women in India, Bangladesh, and US
– Durreen Shahnaz pioneered the world’s first tradable financial product for investing in underserved women’s livelihoods

Advance praise:

“An inspiring read by a passionate trailblazer. Durreen Shahnaz shares her remarkable experiences challenging the status quo, beating the odds, and fueling change.”
—Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Think Again and host of the TED podcast Re: Thinking

“As the world pushes for gender equality and women’s representation in the global financial system, Durreen Shahnaz is one of the few who has rolled up her sleeves and done the work of lifting women up.”
– Professor Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank and Nobel Peace Prize winner

“Her passion flows through The Defiant Optimist, inspiring women and girls and reminding them of the power they hold if they only dare to dream. She is a wonderful role model for girls and women everywhere.”
– Dr Judith Rodin, former president of the Rockefeller, Foundation and former president of the University of Pennsylvania

Durreen Shahnaz

Published by Penguin Random House India, Durreen Shahnaz narrates her journey 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 in The Defiant Optimist. Shahnaz takes the readers on a mesmerizing journey of innovation, compassion, and enterprise.

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.

Defiant optimism- the stubborn belief that systems that enrich the few can be transformed for the good of the many-requires an indomitable spirit. In this book, The Defiant Optimst, Shahnaz illuminates what investing in those excluded from networks of power and opportunity requires.

Durreen Shahnaz

Durreen Shahnaz elaborates about her tours to the 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. She shares about her trip to a garment factory where women labour for low wages, and to a town in India where microfinance offers women enough capital to run grocery stores and tailor shops.

Along the way, the birth of her two daughters only fuels Shahnaz’s relentless pursuit of a world where girls are valued. Finally, armed with financial backers and a plan, she successfully launches the Women’s Livelihood Bond™ Series, the world’s first tradable financial product for investing in underserved women’s livelihoods.

Changing how systems work and who they work for isn’t for the faint of heart. But The Defiant Optimist offers strategies for placing women, the underserved, and the planet at the heart of systems. Together we can locate the levers of power and pull them defiantly in a new direction.

Durreen Shahnaz