“…Consequently, very few opportunities are created for women, forcing them to become caregivers of family members who are made ill by pollution, and housewives of the mineworkers, and to engage in risky behaviours such as sex work, which aggravates their vulnerability and exacerbates the gender inequality (Abrahamsson, Segerstedt, Nygren, Johansson, Johansson, Edman & Åkerlund, 2014;Lahiri-Dutt, 2015;Muponde, 2021). A woman's life in Africa is generally characterised by poor economic conditions and challenges that are political and environmental in nature leading, among other things, to illegal mining activities that further expose them to crime, prostitution, rape and HIV/AIDS (Hove, Nyamunda & Mukwambo, 2014). According to Que et al (2018), where men dominate, women feel like subordinates, particularly in mining, which is stereotypically masculine.…”