This section of Sewing Women revealed much about the hiring habits, work conditions, and general structure of the workday at both Korean and Chinese garment factories. It was evident that many differences existed, and it seemed that while both Korean and Chinese employers had likeable habits, they were far from likeable, overall. The Chinese hired only Chinese workers because the supply of Chinese who wanted to work exceeded the demand. Workers at Chinese factories often worked with family members and as more of their relatives immigrated to the U.S., they taught them how to sew and use the presses and they end up working in these factories as well. The Chinese got paid based on how much work they did and one worker would work on a whole garment. This allowed for a worker to leave during the workday to pick up her child from school, or run a quick errand.

In Korean factories, however, one was paid by the hour, and one garment was worked on by many workers, each doing his part. This was an assembly line of sorts. Unfortunately, such a structure didn’t allow for workers to have much freedom to leave at different points during the day as the Chinese did. Additionally, because there weren’t nearly as many Koreans available for work in factories as there were Chinese, Korean employers hired workers of other ethnicities. The Mexicans and Ecuadorians they hired worked just as hard as the other workers and, as the Korean factory owner quoted at the beginning of Chapter 5 states, these workers should be given a chance. Nonetheless, Korean employers were still discriminatory in their hiring habits, refusing to give jobs to Puerto Ricans and African Americans because they considered them to be lazy.

Overall, the conditions in both Chinese and Korean factories were unsatisfactory. Although the Chinese factory owners treated their workers better than did the Koreans and the work environment was more relaxed, the meager salaries that garment factory workers were paid should have been higher. Out of respect for those who brought them into these factories and basically enabled them to get these jobs, the Chinese didn’t complain and didn’t ask for higher wages. Why couldn’t the Chinese have asked calmly and nicely for slightly higher wages? How would that have been a betrayal of their loyalty?