them, and her often trying circumstances. In addition, Constable shows that these women are more powerful (or at least less powerless), less oppressed, and often far from the "stupid" poverty-stricken foreigners held in such low esteem by the Chinese in Hong Kong.
Constable relies largely on interviews with workers, with Filipinas who run a mission for Filipina workers having difficulties in Hong Kong, and with labor activists among the women, as well as on her observation of these women at work and outside of work. In addition, the author utilizes "archival materials, popular literature, editorials, and articles" in local periodicals, as well as earlier studies of the same subject (xiii). The portrait she draws is nothing like the stereotype expressed by most Chinese employers, including one whose bias piqued Constable's interest in the subject in the first place:
"Filipinas . . . are very stupid."
...