Best-selling author Peggy Orenstein will deliver the Olin Fellows Conference keynote address as part of the Assembly Series at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 21, in Graham Chapel. Orenstein’s talk is titled, “Where’s the Map? Navigating Women’s Lives in a Half-Changed World.”
Orenstein knows firsthand the challenges inherent in balancing career and family. With rare candor, she has written about painful decisions and mixed emotions during her journey of infertility, child raising and staying on-course professionally.
Her most recent work, “Waiting for Daisy: A Tale of Two Continents, Three Religions, Five Infertility Doctors, An Oscar, An Atomic Bomb, A Romantic Night and One Woman’s Quest to Become a Mother,” was a New York Times best-seller.
Previous books include “Flux: Women on Sex, Work, Kids, Love and Life in a Half-Changed World” and “Schoolgirls: Young Women, Self-Esteem and the Confidence Gap.”
Orenstein is a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine and has written for The Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Vogue, Elle, Discover, More, Mother Jones, Salon, O: The Oprah Magazine and The New Yorker.
She has appeared on numerous television and radio programs, including ABC’s “Nightline” and “Good Morning America”; NBC’s “The Today Show”; and NPR’s “Fresh Air.”
Orenstein graduated from Oberlin College with a major in English literature. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, Oscar Award-winning filmmaker Steven Okazaki, and their daughter, Daisy Tomoko.