"There are huge differences between city life and rural life," Pun said. "There's a lot of hardship for them, especially when they have to work long hours and learn work skills by themselves."
Apart from the physical stresses, women from the countryside must also cope with social problems like sexual harassment, in a world where about 70 percent of supervisors are male, Pun said.
"The kind of harassment is quite subtle, but is almost everywhere," she said.
"There's a lot of verbal abuse, as well as behavioural abuse. For example, when the supervisors do interviews, they will touch the women's hands. They will also give lots of comments on their bodies."
In such cases, Pun said, hometown bonds that many of the women share also function as support networks.
"Most of these women will form some sort of ethnic or kinship enclave to cope with the industrialised network," Pun said. "This kind of kinship network helps them to cope with life in the workplace."
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