Women and Artisanal Mining: Gender Roles and the Road Ahead

This chapter of the book, The Socio-Economic Impacts of Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining in Developing Countries, intends to explore existing and evolving gender roles of women in artisanal mining communities, and provides a rationale and strategy for women to maximize potential benefits from participation in the sector. Women are often overlooked by initiatives and development programmes directed at catalyzing the transformation of artisanal mining. Due to their critical role, not only in mineral production, but also in the development of sustainable communities, combined with their susceptibility to poverty, enhancing the role of women in artisanal mining may be a means to “bridge the gap” between the well- conceived technical and socio-economic changes often prescribed for artisanal mining, and the actual facilitation of positive transformation of the artisanal mining sector.