Abstract
Across many mineral-rich developing countries, artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) has been noted as a crucial socio-economic activity for most rural people. Over the past 2 decades, there has been growing participation of women in the ASM sector with extant studies examining why women participate in ASM, the roles they play and how their involvement enhances their socio-economic development. However, the socio-structural dynamics and gendered relations within ASM are poorly understood and underexplored despite the increasing participation of women in the sector. Based on field observations and interviews involving 49 women miners in the Prestea–Huni Valley Municipality of Ghana, this paper discusses the on-site challenges of women in ASM through multiple standpoint and African feminism theoretical perspectives. It also examines how understanding the struggles of women can reduce their work-related risks and promote gender-sensitive policies for rural women’s empowerment in ASM. The study finds that the struggles of working women in ASM involve cultural marginalisation and gendered work patterns, poor working environment, poor work support services for women with children, lack of legal and economic rights, and inter-ethnic discrimination by employers. We argue that policymakers, relevant stakeholders, and the government through the district assemblies should collaborate with small-scale mining employers to enhance gender-sensitive on-site regulatory policies, ensure safe working environments for workers, and provide locally appropriate work support services for women in ASM. We further argue that, government and regulatory institutions need to promote gender mainstreaming for ‘inclusion of women’ in the management structure at mine sites and also the extraction and processing stages of ASM.
Highlights
Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) remains an important source of employment and income for many rural communities across the developing world [27]
Given that standpoint theory was more theory-based since its origins, this study offers an empirical contribution to the study of women as a marginalised social group in the male-dominated ASM industry in a non-western context and Ghana
This study investigated how women in artisanal and small-scale gold mining in the Prestea–Huni Valley Municipality struggle in the historically male-dominated industry
Summary
Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) remains an important source of employment and income for many rural communities across the developing world [27]. Given the different experiences and perspectives of women miners in rural Ghana, an African feminist standpoint theory provides a useful framework to understand their struggles in relation to other women and with men. Women miners in ASM are faced with constant threats of termination and replacement, hardly benefit from limited social safety nets, lack economic and legal rights, and experience ethnic-related favouritism which make them dependent on male employers from similar backgrounds at ASM sites to ensure timely wages.
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