{"id":3294,"date":"2022-06-14T18:22:27","date_gmt":"2022-06-14T18:22:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.igfmining.org\/stage_new\/how-will-women-fit-into-the-mining-workforce-of-the-future\/"},"modified":"2023-03-22T14:39:00","modified_gmt":"2023-03-22T14:39:00","slug":"women-mining-workforce-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.igfmining.org\/stage\/women-mining-workforce-future\/","title":{"rendered":"How Will Women Fit Into the Mining Workforce of the Future?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mining technology has constantly evolved over the centuries, but today\u2019s emerging technologies are rapidly reshaping the nature of mining work as never before. Workers will surely feel the knock-on effects\u2014but will those effects change the gender dynamics of the traditionally male-dominated mining workforce?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s tempting to be optimistic. One might assume that new ways of working might challenge ideas prioritizing the physical strength of workers and thereby push large-scale mining toward gender balance. However, examples from the past indicate that while such advances may gradually upskill the mining workforce<\/a>, our research suggests they may also increase its masculinity if new developments are tailored to suit male workers.<\/p>\n

As the increasingly digitized large-scale mining sector is set to ramp up to produce the copper, lithium, and other minerals critical to low-carbon energy transitions, the Women and the Mine of the Future<\/a> (WMF) project has set out to shed light on the gendered employment landscape for large-scale mining via granular gendered data to help stakeholders assess, anticipate, and address inequities with evidence-based policies and programs.<\/p>\n

Why Does Gender Equality in the Mining Workforce Matter?<\/h3>\n

Across the globe, large-scale mining offers relatively high wages to workers. It also represents one of the most male-dominated industries, with women making up only 5% to 15% of workers. And while mining may be a small sector in terms of total employment in a nation, it is often the biggest and most important employer for many mining communities. Balancing access to mining jobs can bring secure livelihoods to women and their households while engendering trust with authorities and industry.<\/p>\n

Decision-makers need to understand the status quo for women in mining if there is any hope of addressing longstanding inequities during the next generation of large-scale mining\u2014a generation that will be characterized by digitization, automation, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and more.<\/p>\n

Accordingly, the first phase of our WMF research project is to establish a baseline gender profile for workers in large-scale mining. A clearer picture of the gender dynamics on the ground today can inform actions to ensure new mining technologies<\/a> do not maintain or intensify existing inequities.<\/p>\n

This year, we released uniquely granular and comparable data<\/a> on the mining workforces in 10 diverse nations, drawn from household surveys collected by the International Labour Organization.<\/p>\n

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