Women miners remain drastically underrepresented

The 13^th Women in Mining Conference and Career Expo is exploring ways to increase women’s representation in the mining industry.

At least 12% of the country’s miners are women.

According to the Minerals Council of South Africa 2018, the number of women working in the mining sector has increased significantly in the past 15 years or so from around 11,400 in 2002 to around 53,000 women in 2015, increasing to 54,154 in 2018. 

The conference took place at the Indaba Hotel this week and aims to give women the platform to share valuable information and engage on critical issues that affect women’s participation in the mining and mineral industry.

The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy acknowledged women’s exclusion and inequality in the mining and mineral industries as a global problem despite the efforts made worldwide.

“Women are excluded in employment, business, and at the community level. When women participate in the mining sector, they are given limited support,” said Deputy Minister Dr Nobuhle Nkabinde.

A series of studies by the Commission for Gender Equality (CGE) on the state of inclusion at some South African mining companies, revealed that the mining industry has clearly struggled to promote gender transformation because men still dominate decision-making levels of employment.

The South African government wants to transform the mining industry by creating strategies to address the exclusion and discrimination of women in the mining and mineral workplace.

Mining Charter targets were adjusted to provide for Historically Disadvantaged Individuals (HDIs) at various levels of appointment as follows:

• 50% of board and executive management with 20% women
• 60% senior and middle management with 25% women
• 70% of junior management with 30% women

South Africa lags behind other mining countries such as Australia and Canada, which are still relatively low, however have a slightly higher representation of women in mining at 17% and 16% respectively.

A recent study on “Creating Gender Inclusive Mining Industry: Uncovering the Challenges of Female Mining Stakeholders” revealed that less than 20% of women are appointed to leadership positions in mining countries in the world.

• Australia at 16.1%,
• Canada 16%,
• Mexico 14.9%,
• South Africa 13.2%,
• United States 13%,
• Chile 8%,
• Indonesia 6.7%,
• Ghana 6%,
• Peru 5.7%, and
• China 3%.

Women are not only underrepresented but their presence in managerial positions are not noteworthy.

According to a Forbes 2019 article on women in mining, only one in 20 global firms is headed by a woman.

2018 numbers show the industry has the second-largest median gender pay gap in the UK at 24.9%.

“It is clear, that, women experience a lack of career advancement, discrimination in decision making, remuneration and general abuse in the mining sector. This needs to change,” said Nkabinde.

In South Africa, more than half of our population is female, but the Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs (MIWE) found that women make up only 19.4% of business owners, making us 45^th in the world when it comes to female-run companies. That’s a long way behind Uganda (39.6%), Botswana (38.5%), and Ghana (36.5%).

Some of the key challenges that prevent women from entering the mining and mineral value chain include the following:

• access to finance,
• gender bias
• lack of market access
• lack of information on existing opportunities,
• poor or limited networking opportunities
• inadequate role models
• lack of business skills and education

In 2019, the DMRE  launched and implemented the “Women Diggers Programme” which is a flagship empowerment pilot project in Taung, North-West Province. 

The programme aims to increase the number of women with requisite skills in the mining sector, especially small-scale mining, and to increase women’s representation in the mainstream economy and in the mineral and mining sectors.

Compiled by Narissa Subramoney

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