The Australian mining industry and the ideal mining woman: Mobilizing a public business case for gender equality

Abstract

Despite ongoing ‘boom’ conditions in the Australian mining industry, women remain substantially and unevenly under-represented in the sector, as is the case in other resource-dependent countries. Building on the literature critiquing business-case rationales and strategies as a means to achieve women’s equality in the workplace, we examine the business case for employing more women as advanced by the Australian mining industry. Specifically, we apply a discourse analysis to seven substantial, publically-available documents produced by the industry’s national and state peak organizations between 2005 and 2013. Our study makes two contributions. First, we map the features of the business case at the sectoral rather than firm or workplace level and examine its public mobilization. Second, we identify the construction and deployment of a normative identity – ‘the ideal mining woman’ – as a key outcome of this business-case discourse. Crucially, women are therein positioned as individually responsible for gender equality in the workplace.

An exploratory study of the relations between women miners' gender‐based workplace issues and their mental health and job satisfaction

“…Organizational sexism is similar to the construct of workplace barriers to job progression that was identified by Bailey‐Kruger () in her investigation of women miners, and it is consistent with various aspects of organizational sexism that have been identified in other prior qualitative research on women miners (Mayes & Pini, ; Murray & Peetz, ; Nowak et al, ; Pattenden, ; Tallichet, ). The organizational sexism construct also converges with the perceived burdens on women factor identified by Bergman and Hallberg () in their study of women in another male‐dominated industry.…”

“…Prior qualitative research has identified a series of gender‐based workplace issues for women miners (Bailey‐Kruger, ; Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining, ; Eveline & Booth, ; Lucas & Steimel, ; Mayes & Pini, ; Murray & Peetz, 2009a, 2009b, 2010; Nowak et al, ; Pattenden, ; Rolston, ; Tallichet, ; Yount, ). However, no quantitative research has investigated the empirical commonalities between these issues.…”

“…Participants responded to a list of 22 statements that referred to gender‐based workplace issues for women miners, such as fewer opportunities for promotion and training, exposure to sexist comments, and support from co‐workers. These issues were sourced from the qualitative literature in this area (Bailey‐Kruger, ; Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining, ; Eveline & Booth, ; Lucas & Steimel, ; Mayes & Pini, ; Murray & Peetz, 2009a, 2009b, 2010; Nowak et al, ; Pattenden, ; Rolston, ; Tallichet, ; Yount, ). The items were similar to those used by Bergman and Hallberg ().…”

“…This approach has been successful in identifying a range of gender‐based workplace issues that may impact negatively on women miners. In particular, qualitative interviews have found that women miners feel that they have fewer opportunities for promotion and training, less job security, greater difficulty balancing work and child care responsibilities, greater exposure to sexist comments and harassment, less support from co‐workers, and less of a sense of belonging in the industry, and they feel judged by others as being less competent than their male colleagues (e.g., Bailey‐Kruger, ; Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining, ; Eveline & Booth, ; Lucas & Steimel, ; Mayes & Pini, ; Murray & Peetz, 2009a, 2009b, 2010; Nowak, Marinelli, Lord, & Bonner, ; Pattenden, ; Rolston, ; Tallichet, ; Yount, ).…”

Safety Leadership Defined within the Australian Construction Industry

“…From the total sample size of participants, 10% were female (2) and 90% were male (18), with 65% (13) of the participants having previously worked outside of Australia in the construction industry. The gender imbalance highlighted in the above table is typical of the male-dominated construction and mining industry (Mayes and Pini, 2014). Both females in the sample size were project managers.…”