Digging women: towards a new agenda for feminist critiques of mining

Abstract

This article addresses how a contemporary feminist perspective can problematise the ancient human endeavour of mining, and indicates which direction research on the interface between extractive industries and gender could usefully take. Feminist research has confronted masculinist discourses of mining by questioning the naturalisation of men as industrial workers, and by illustrating the gender-selective impacts of capitalist mining projects. The article probes the sources of these masculinist discourses of mining and reinterprets these critiques. Most importantly, by highlighting the diverse range of extractive practices that reflect different stages of surplus accumulation, it encourages a rethinking of mining itself as an area of feminine work. Finally, it makes tentative suggestions as to how the field of women and mining might be examined and addressed by contemporary feminists. A postcapitalist feminist critique of mining would hinge upon revealing women's agency in mining and revisit the conventional definitions of mining as industrial work and begin to see the feminine livelihoods in mining.

Land and ‘space’ for regulating artisanal mining in Cambodia: Visualizing an environmental governance conundrum in contested territory

“…Past scholarship stresses that mining laws and environmental regulations in Asia have been ineffective and inequitable for numerous reasons, including the fact that ASM activities 1 are generally not licensed (Shen et al, 2009;Burke, 2006). While environmental scholarship has long stressed that poor ASM practices lead to land degradation and pollution, posing various health risks, a growing body of literature questions the mainstream portrayal of this sector in terms of its threats and "illegality," noting that ASM provides crucial informal livelihoods to large numbers of people worldwide (Canavesio, 2014;Lahiri-Dutt, 2012;Hirons, 2011;Bryceson et al, 2013;Fisher and Childs, 2013;Spiegel, 2015). The first of the two main "spatial logics" analysed in this article lies in the government's mandate to regulate ASM -which ostensibly became a priority when, in October 2013, Cambodia signed a historic global environmental treaty called the Minamata Convention on Mercury.…”

The Feminisation of Mining

“…However, some feminists have argued that conflicts in class and gender identities are such that women are never an integral part of mining unions (see Lahiri‐Dutt, 2012), and that the politics of socialism portrays a fiction in the character of ‘the miner's wife’ supporting men's struggles in solidarity (Lahiri‐Dutt, ; see e.g. Spence, ).…”

“…In conceiving of alternatives to the passive construction of women, the theoretical basis for viewing women only as victims of social and economic change has been questioned (Lahiri‐Dutt, 2012b). Perpetuating victimhood conceals women's agency and autonomy.…”

A good business or a risky business: Health, safety and quality of life for women small-scale miners in PNG

“…A number of studies indicate that money generated by women miners contributes more directly to household well-being than that of the men, with women's income providing for food, education, medical expenses and replenishing agricultural cropping needs, while men's income is often spent on gambling, prostitution and alcohol (Jennings 1999;Krimbu 2005;Javia and Siop 2010). While women's mining contributions are often in ancillary roles such as food vendors, sex workers and other service providers, these roles are performed in addition to their domestic responsibilities, often making their contribution 'less visible', and therefore less recognised and valued (Lahiri-Dutt 2006, 2012. A comprehensive literature critique by Jenkins (2014) provides valuable insight into the ways women are affected by ASM mining activities, with the author highlighting a lack of in-depth analysis of women's diverse experiences as mine workers across a number of parameters, including gender impacts of mining, changing gender dynamics and gender inequalities in mining communities.…”