The Feminisation of Mining

Abstract

This paper argues that feminisation is beginning to occur in the mining industry, a process associated with an expanded notion of mining as a livelihood in the radically changing political economy of extractive industries. It demonstrates that new gendered geographies are being created as grinding rural poverty pushes large numbers of women into informal mining (also known as artisanal and small-scale mining or ASM)-a fundamentally different type of economic activity from the capitalised, industrialised mining operated by large corporations. Further, it shows that a number of civil society initiatives, industry measures, policy processes and action-research with large-scale mining corporations are currently underway in response to an overall enhanced awareness of gender mainstreaming. It argues that these initiatives, ensued from women's struggles and feminist contributions, are helping to integrate gender more firmly in a wide range of extractive environments, and how these have enhanced the visibility of women and gender in mining. The paper ends by indicating the existing gaps in inquiry and possible directions for future research by feminist geographers into these gendered economic spaces.

Is There a Place for Women in the Polish Mines?—Selected Issues in the Context of Sustainable Development

“…• Employees: Agricola has described women as performing tasks associated with the processing of minerals as early as the 16th century [11]; • Debutants: The first women who gained mining skills [12]; • Bosses: The status of women in the mining industry and changes in the mining sector in managerial positions [13]; • Social activists: Supporting movements that oppose exploitation [14]; • Victims: Within the context of health consequences and the impact on the psychophysical condition of women associated with the mining sector, resulting from their work in mining communities [15], but also their exploitation as employees, particularly in the case of small-scale artisanal mining [16].…”

Gendering women’s livelihoods in artisanal and small-scale mining: an introduction

“…Here, we are intentionally gesturing to feminist research on ASM and women's mining-related livelihoods. Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt (2015, 533, 2012, for one, has argued for the importance of nuanced gender analysis drawing from "postcolonial feminist perspectives that critically reflect on power relations; intersectionality; feminist political ecology and gender and development (GAD) theory." We agree with Lahiri-Dutt's commitment to a feminist theory of gender and mining based in an understanding of gender as a structuring social relation, intersecting with other social inequalities, but that "can also be read off from the configurations different societies take" (Cooper 2004, 41).…”

Mining and women in northwest Mexico: a feminist political ecology approach to impacts on rural livelihoods

“…FPE frames gender as a crucial differentiating social category and views the distribution of natural and material resources, risks, impacts, and access to environmental decision-making as reflecting gendered power relationships (Buechler and Hanson, 2015; Rocheleau et al, 1996). FPE is a useful though underutilized theoretical framework for the analysis of women’s roles in LSM (Lahiri-Dutt, 2015a, 2015b; Binoy, 2017) especially in Latin America (Brain, 2017; Viteri, 2017). FPE helped analyze women’s positionings in gendered power relationships within mining and their community, particularly those related to (1) women’s access and rights to natural resources and natural resource-based employment; (2) mining women’s agency within their households, communities, and workplaces; and (3) physical and social impacts and risks of mining for women.…”