Foxconn, a major manufacturer of Apple devices, has been excluding female candidates from assembly jobs at its flagship Indian smartphone plant because they are married. Both companies’ codes of conduct state that workers shouldn’t be discriminated against on the basis of marital status.
A Reuters investigation has found that Foxconn has systematically excluded married women from jobs at its main India iPhone assembly plant, on the grounds they have more family responsibilities than their unmarried counterparts. S. Paul, a former human-resources executive at Foxconn India, said the company’s executives verbally convey the recruitment rules to its Indian hiring agencies, which Foxconn tasks with scouting for candidates, bringing them in for interviews and employing them.
Foxconn typically doesn’t hire married women because of “cultural issues” and societal pressures, said Paul, who said he left the company in August 2023 for a better-paying role at a consulting firm. The company’s view was that there were “many issues post-marriage,” Paul added. Among them: Women “have babies after marriage.”
“Risk factors increase when you hire married women,” he said.
Well that’s the neat part, it’s by design. It’s not a coincidence that now when we are more connected to each other than ever, now that instant communication would make it possible to coordinate globally, the powers that be instead focus on divisiveness above all else, on misinformation and contrarianism above all else. A nation divided is too busy fighting each other to realize they can make it over the mountain.
The hands of the many must join as one. Or you’ll never make it over the river.