“If you don't go to site, they call you a lazy person”: Drivers of women's participation in artisanal and small-scale mining: The case of rural northern Ghana
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
In recent years, women's involvement in informal artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) activities in sub-Saharan African countries have surged. While many studies have attributed the increased involvement of women in ASM to the rising economic hardship in rural landscapes, a deeper interrogation of the socioeconomic and sociocultural drivers of the surge in women in ASM remains underexplored. This study inquires as follows: has women's increased participation in ASM anything to do with socioeconomic factors, or sociocultural factors, or to both? The study draws on a qualitive case study research design involving in-depth interviews with 67 women miners in northern Ghana, one of the emerging ASM hotspots. It answers the question by analyzing (1) the socioeconomic drivers of women's participation in ASM, and (2) the sociocultural drivers of women's participation in ASM. This helps in identifying the contextual constraints to women's participation in ASM in Ghana and other regions in sub-Saharan Africa. Findings show that the socioeconomic drivers of women's participation in ASM are unemployment, increasing household needs, climate change effect on agriculture, and the quest to acquire physical assets. A key contribution of the study relates to how the local communities' sub-culture, social recognition for women who made it in ASM and marital challenges drive women's participation in ASM. Participation in ASM inures to women's empowerment in the long-run provided the sociocultural, financial, and technological barriers facing women miners are addressed. The findings underscore the urgent need for a robust policy on gender mainstreaming and the creation of a gender-sensitive mining environment alongside formalization of ASM activities in developing countries.
期刊介绍:
Resources Policy is an international journal focused on the economics and policy aspects of mineral and fossil fuel extraction, production, and utilization. It targets individuals in academia, government, and industry. The journal seeks original research submissions analyzing public policy, economics, social science, geography, and finance in the fields of mining, non-fuel minerals, energy minerals, fossil fuels, and metals. Mineral economics topics covered include mineral market analysis, price analysis, project evaluation, mining and sustainable development, mineral resource rents, resource curse, mineral wealth and corruption, mineral taxation and regulation, strategic minerals and their supply, and the impact of mineral development on local communities and indigenous populations. The journal specifically excludes papers with agriculture, forestry, or fisheries as their primary focus.