For years, Focus on Labour Exploitation and other organisations have raised the alarm about the Seasonal Worker Scheme, and the ways in which its design facilitates exploitation.

What has gone unaddressed for too long is the way that the scheme harms women workers, and exposes them to a particular risks of exploitation.

Focus on Labour Exploitation (FLEX)’s new briefing, “Uneven fields: women workers’ experiences of the Seasonal Worker Scheme”, directly confronts the realities migrant women are facing in the fields.

While many of the problems faced by seasonal workers are experienced by both men and women, women are often hit harder by these issues.

But it’s not just these general problems that set women apart in the scheme; the gendered dynamics within the system create specific, unique risks for women workers. In this way, women on the scheme are pushed to the margins of an already precarious workforce; it is time we paid attention.