Eventually the Mine Will Come: Women Anti-Mining Activists’ Everyday Resilience in Opposing Resource Extraction in the Andes

Citation:

Jenkins, Katy, and Glevys Rondón. 2015. “‘Eventually the Mine Will Come’: Women Anti-Mining Activists’ Everyday Resilience in Opposing Resource Extraction in the Andes.” Gender & Development 23 (3): 415–31.

Authors: Katy Jenkins, Glevys Rondón

Abstract:

This article explores the experiences of women anti-mining activists in rural communities in Andean Peru and Ecuador. The article analyses women activists’ experience of negotiating conflicts with large-scale mining companies, as well as within their communities, using the concept of resilience to understand their continued commitment to this work in a context of conflict, intimidation, and violence. Women activists’ resilience is demonstrated in their determination to fight the arrival of mining, despite being among an increasingly small minority of their communities who continue to oppose the mining companies; their commitment to collective action and to occupying their lands; and their tenacity in campaigning against resource extraction while simultaneously recognising that ‘eventually the mine will come’.

Keywords: Gender, activism, extractive industries, Latin America, resilience

Topics: Extractive Industries, Gender, Women, Violence Regions: Americas, South America Countries: Ecuador, Peru

Year: 2015