"The gender gap in the electronics factories: women exposed to chemicals and lower pay", 22 December 2017

“The factories prefer women because they are more patient but also because they are easier to dominate” says Patchanee Kumnak, the Thailand representative of Good Electronic….

For their part, men rarely sit on the assembly lines and generally occupy higher and better paid positions.

In this division of labour by gender, women are concentrated in the most basic tasks…and therefore earned on average 16 per cent less than their male colleagues in 2013….

Women are also more exposed to threats and verbal abuse from their superiors. …Women complain more frequently of cases of “bodily threats, violence and threats to their personal freedom” than men….

“Health is not a priority for the women workers, and they don’t have enough information about it.…” says Patchanee Kunmak.

The division of labour also exposes women to greater health risks because working on the assembly lines puts them in greater contact with chemicals….

Most of the companies also have a policy of not revealing the chemicals they use….

...Most pregnant women hide their status in order to continue working overtime...to avoid a reduction in their pay packet. "There is also a problem with the positions they consider appropriate for pregnant women, because the managers decide. There are pregnant women driving heavy machinery," says Lek.