The majority of women workers are single mothers. Work begins at 6.30 or 7am. The lunch break is an hour from 11.30 or 12 noon. Work finishes at 3 or 3.30pm. For example, in one factory the quota is set at 1,800 operations per day, i.e the worker must sew this amount of garment pieces, like a collar or sleeve, to another.
Many workers take only a few minutes break at lunch time in order to try and make the quota.
Women workers are vulnerable to sexual harassment from male factory supervisors - sexual favors are extracted under threat of dismissal. In addition, workers suffer continuous threat of dismissal, either for failing to meet quotas or when identified as a 'troublemaker' - i.e. someone interested in banding together with fellow workers with a view to forming a workers' association. Murder committed by a husband who discovers his wife and her lover in flagrante delicto may be excused by a judge and, in any event, punished by no more than two years in prison. The courts have attributed less importance to the rape of a woman who is not a virgin on the pretext that her honor is not at issue. Medical certificates are required to prove rape and are difficult to impossible for most women to obtain.