Gender inequality runs deep in mining

Gender equality is clearly a challenge for the mining industry. In mining companies and mining-affected communities, women are most often at a disadvantage compared to their male counterparts. Companies’ gender-biased policies and practices, such as recruitment processes that discriminate against female candidates or land compensation payments that exclude women, are clearly part of the problem. However, the more insidious problem of gender-blindness, which ignores or neglects gender-based realities, is often more difficult to recognise and address.