Corporate Engagement with Indigenous Women in the Minerals Industry: Making Space for Theory

Citation:

Gibson, Ginger, and Deanna Kemp. 2008. “Corporate Engagement with Indigenous Women in the Minerals Industry: Making Space for Theory.” In Earth Matters: Indigenous Peoples, the Extractive Industries and Corporate Social Responsibility, edited by Ciaran O’Faircheallaigh and Saleem Ali, 104–22. Sheffield, UK: Greenleaf Publishing Ltd.

Authors: Ginger Gibson, Deanna Kemp

Abstract:

This chapter focuses on corporate engagement of indigenous women in and around large-scale mining. It explores empirical data on this subject and relates this to several different theories. The chapter provides theory in two main ways: as a frame to help make sense of the world and as a predictive tool to understand what might happen sometime in the future. It reviews Marxist or class-based analysis, with Marxist-feminist theory as an outgrowth of this general approach, and cultural theory, with postmodern cultural theory as an outgrowth. Postmodern cultural theory reveals multiple levels of gendered exclusion. The chapter outlines how the minerals industry considers indigenous women at a policy level and provides some empirical findings about corporate engagement with indigenous women. Employment is an important avenue for indigenous people to gain benefits from mineral development. Some mining operations employ small numbers of indigenous women.

Topics: Development, Extractive Industries, Gender, Women, Indigenous, Multi-National Corporations, Rights, Indigenous Rights

Year: 2008