Women

Citation:

Rickard, Sophie. 2020. “Gender, Agency and Decision Making in Community Engagement: Reflections from Afghanistan’s Mes Aynak Mine.” The Extractive Industries and Society 7 (2): 435–45. 

Author: Sophie Rickard

Abstract:

This paper explores what constitutes meaningful participation of women in community consultation processes of extractive operations, through a case study of the Mes Aynak Copper Mine resettlement in Afghanistan. It aims to better understand the factors that enable and constrain women’s agency and ability to effectively influence decisions; and how the understanding of gender and culture in Afghanistan by key stakeholders’ influences women’s participation in the sector. Through a review of the literature and key Mes Aynak project documents, as well as interviews with experts, practitioners and civil society, the paper unpacks women’s participation in community engagement processes, drawing on Arnstein’s ladder of participation (Arnstein, 1969) as a basis to explore women’s participation. It explores the role of gender and culture in determining outcomes and provides reflections on how to improve women’s meaningful participation in Afghanistan’s extractive industries. Crucially, it was found that there is a need to critically examine how key sector stakeholders understand and engage with cultural norms around women’s participation in the sector; as well as the need to work with the Citizens Charter programme to reinforce inclusion and avoid the sector exacerbating existing inequalities.

Keywords: community engagement, resettlement, Afghanistan, extractive industries, mining, participation

Topics: Displacement & Migration, Extractive Industries, Gender, Women Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Afghanistan

Year: 2020

Citation:

Lahiri-Dutt, Kuntala. 2020. “The Act That Shaped the Gender of Industrial Mining: Unintended Impacts of the British Mines Act of 1842 on Women’s Status in the Industry.” The Extractive Industries and Society 7 (2): 389–97. 

Author: Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt

Abstract:

In the 19th century, public outrage over poor working conditions of children in underground coal mines in the UK led to the enactment of the Mines and Collieries Act 1842. It prohibited boys under the age of ten and all females from laboring in underground mines. This Act wiped out the long and impressive history of women’s labor in the mining industry, and pushed women into more insecure areas of work. Later, during the 1920s and 1930s, this Act became the model for the International Labour Organization (ILO) to adopt protective legislation around women’s labor in the mining industry. Although unintended, the Act established ideals for decent work for women as per the Victorian norm and eventually led to the contemporary global context of hypermasculinity of the mining industry. The paper shows how women’s labor in mines—within a strict sex-based division of tasks—was, and remains, subject to gender ideologies that are not only propagated at home, but assume an authoritative position when adopted by the state.

Keywords: gender in mining, women in mining, protective legislation, British Mines Act, women's labor in mining, ILO and women's mining

Topics: Extractive Industries, Gender, Gender Roles, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Hierarchies, Masculinism Regions: Europe, Northern Europe Countries: United Kingdom

Year: 2020

Citation:

Kaggwa, Martin. 2020. “Interventions to Promote Gender Equality in the Mining Sector of South Africa.” The Extractive Industries and Society 7 (2): 398–404. 

Author: Martin Kaggwa

Abstract:

This research study explored workplace challenges that women in the South African mining sector still face despite progressive gender sensitive regulations. The purpose of the research was to come up with evidence-based recommendations on how to promote sustainable gender equality in South Africa’s mining sector. A survey approach was used for the research, with a total of 2 365 women working in the mining sector being interviewed. The main challenge faced by the women was lack of career progress followed by discrimination in decision making and in remuneration. Women attributed these challenges to their immediate supervisors and company policies. A key lesson from the research was that legislation can be a useful tool in mitigating workplace challenges for women and reducing gender inequality in the mining sector but it is not a sufficient intervention. The study recommends that deliberate steps should be taken to facilitate and impart skills to women that they need to progress up the employment level hierarchy. This should be done while at the same time opening up opportunities of higher responsibilities for women to hold.

Keywords: mining, women, gender equality, South Africa

Topics: Extractive Industries, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality Regions: Africa, Southern Africa Countries: South Africa

Year: 2020

Citation:

Boudewijn, Inge A. M. 2020. “Negotiating Belonging and Place: An Exploration of Mestiza Women’s Everyday Resistance in Cajamarca, Peru.” Human Geography 13 (1): 40–48. 

Author: Inge A. M. Boudewijn

Abstract:

SPANISH ABSTRACT:
Desde 1993, la región de Cajamarca en Perú ha sido el hogar de la mina de oro Yanacocha, asociada con la degradación ambiental, los impactos negativos en la salud y las consecuencias socioeconómicas. Loayza (2012), estallaron protestas a gran escala en toda la región por la propuesta de la nueva mina Conga. Cada vez más, la investigación académica se dedica a reconocer las luchas socioambientales fuera de la movilización masiva y las protestas públicas; a nivel local, doméstico y cotidiano, a menudo realizado en escalas de tiempo mucho más largas. En este contexto, exploro críticamente la resistencia cotidiana de las mujeres que se identifican como mestizas en la ciudad de Cajamarca. A través de una discusión sobre cómo su resistencia en curso construye críticamente quién / qué pertenece en el lugar y quién / qué es ‘otro’ / ‘extraño’, analizo cómo movilizan los valores y conocimientos locales de género para continuar oponiéndose a la minería a gran escala en las secuelas del conflicto de la Conga.

ENGLISH ABSTRACT:
Since 1993, the Cajamarca region of Peru has been home to the Yanacocha gold mine, associated with environmental degradation, negative health impacts, and socio-economic consequences. In 2012, large-scale protests broke out across the region over the newly proposed Conga mine. Increasingly, scholarship is devoted to recognizing socio-environmental struggles outside of mass-mobilization and public protests, at the local, household and everyday level, often performed over much longer timescales. In this context, I critically explore the everyday resistance of mestiza-identifying women in Cajamarca city. Through a discussion of how their on-going resistance critically constructs who/what belongs in place and who/what is ‘other’/‘stranger’, I analyse how they mobilize gendered local values and knowledge to continue opposing large-scale mining in the aftermath of the Conga conflict.

Keywords: women, extractive industries, Andes, everyday resistance, industrias extractivas, resistencia cotidiana, minería, mining, Mujeres

Topics: Environment, Extractive Industries, Gender, Women, Health, Indigenous Regions: Americas, South America Countries: Peru

Year: 2020

Citation:

Lawson, Lynda, and Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt. 2020. “Women Sapphire Traders in Madagascar: Challenges and Opportunities for Empowerment.” The Extractive Industries and Society 7 (2): 405–11. 

Authors: Lynda Lawson, Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt

Abstract:

Recent literature has seen a growing appreciation of livelihoods based on informal artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) that supplements women’s primary reproductive roles, leaving a gap in the parts women play at the trading end of the value chain of ASM. This paper fills that void by adding to the growing body of research on gendered trade in ASM. It focuses on women traders and the complex challenges and opportunities they face while carrying out this informal trade. The paper is based on extensive field research, interviews, and focus group discussions of women sapphire traders in southwest Madagascar, colloquially known as “ladies in hats,” who work in clan-based associations described as nascent proto-institutions. It draws upon institutional and entrepreneurial theory to understand their position in the sapphire value chain, and illuminates how women’s status could be strengthened to create the foundation for a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem. The paper also asks how women traders can be empowered in view of the current opportunities and challenges, and suggests that the proto-institutions could form the basis of a cooperative or a small company if regulatory and financial settings for these women can be improved and if there is an opportunity for them to formalize their trade.

Keywords: women in informal trade in Africa, Madagascar women, Madagascar sapphire, gender and mining

Topics: Economies, Informal Economies, Extractive Industries, Gender, Gender Roles, Women, Livelihoods Regions: Africa, Southern Africa Countries: Madagascar

Year: 2020

Citation:

Busingye, Godard. 2020. “African Feminism, Land Tenure and Soil Rights in Africa: A Case of Uganda.” In Legal Instruments for Sustainable Soil Management in Africa, edited by Hadijah Yahyah, Harald Ginzky, Emmanuel Kasimbazi, Robert Kibugi, and Oliver C. Ruppel, 133–55. International Yearbook of Soil Law and Policy. Cham: Springer International Publishing.

Author: Busingye, Godard

Abstract:

This chapter discusses the relationship between African feminism, land tenure and soil rights in Africa. It uses the lenses of African feminism, particularly the motherism brand, to provide a medium through which Africans can assert their rights to land and soil. It bases on a case of Uganda to critique the ideology of patriarchy which denies Africans automatic rights to land and soil or jus soli, through policy and the law. Automatic rights to land and soil would ensure that everyone in Africa is bonded to the land and soil as a mother is bonded to her child. Land and soil rights, which mean the same thing to an African, are contemporaneously acquired and are linked to citizenship rights, largely based on the principle of jus sanguinius. A general conclusion drawn is that in order to rectify the situation discussed African governments should use the lenses of African feminism to reconstruct policies and re-enact laws related to land ownership, soil and sustainable development. It recommends that African governments should review their land policies and laws, including constitutions, in order to grant land and soil rights to all Africans based on the principle of jus soli, while that of jus sanguinius should only be adopted in circumstances where it does not disadvantage any person. Future researchers should build on the analysis made herein and step up their advocacy drives to persuade African governments to undertake the necessary reforms in their land regulatory policies and laws. (Abstract from Springer Link)

Topics: Citizenship, Development, Feminisms, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy, Governance, Land Tenure, Rights, Land Rights Regions: Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa Countries: Uganda

Year: 2020

Citation:

Baataar, Cuthbert, Joseph Bagah, and Tidoo Aminu Mohammed. 2020. “Gendered Customary Land Tenure Dynamics and Its Implications for Rural Development: A Case Study of the Tolon District in Northern Region of Ghana.” ADRRI Journal (Multidisciplinary) 28, no. 12 (5): 52–77.

Abstract:

The study argues for gendered customary land tenure dynamics and its implications for rural development to improve women access to land and human wellbeing in the Tolon District of the Northern Ghana. The study was mainly a case study design. Cluster sampling technique was used to select four communities for the study. Snowball sampling was also used to select 55 household heads whiles 10 key informants were purposively selected. Semi-structured interview, key informant interviews and focus group discussions were used to collect primary data. The study found that; men were the owners of customary lands which they inherited from their forefathers while leasehold lands were seen to be gender neutral. Borrowed landswere the major mode through which female-headed and other non-owning male households accessed l and for agricultural production which were bedeviled with many challenges. The study revealed that most rural households had no knowledge on legal establishment seeking to ensure equal ownership rights in properties. To improve gender gap on land ownership and the secured use of land for rural household wellbeing, this study recommends extensive local level stakeholders’ consultation to protect women rights to own customary lands to ensure equity.

Keywords: customary land tenure, women livelihood strategy, women empowerment, rural development

Topics: Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Land Tenure, Security, Food Security Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Ghana

Year: 2020

Citation:

Simons, Penelope, Naiomi Metallic, Meinhard Doelle, Bayo Majekolagbe, and Sara Seck. 2020. “Impact Assessment and Responsible Business Guidance Tools in the Extractive Sector: Implications for Human Rights, Gender and Stakeholder Engagement.” Draft Final Report for the SSHRC Knowledge Synthesis Grant: Informing Best Practices in Environmental and Impact Assessments, Responsible Business Conduct and Impact Assessment Law, Marine and Environmental Institute, Schulrich School of Law, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada.

Authors: Penelope Simons, Naiomi Metallic, Meinhard Doelle, Bayo Majekolagbe, Sara Seck

Abstract:

This report aims to identify RBC tools referenced in the literature as relevant and/or promoted to Canadian extractive companies operating within and outside Canada. While not appraising or pronouncing on the quality of RBC tools, we consider the different actors that promote these diverse tools and whether there is a coherent framework for the efficient and effective application of current and future tools. We focus on RBC tools on human rights, stakeholder engagement, the rights of Indigenous peoples, and the rights of women and girls. Further, we review the position of scholars on the relationship between RBC and IA.

Topics: Extractive Industries, Gender, Girls, Women, Indigenous, Rights, Human Rights, Indigenous Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Americas, North America Countries: Canada

Year: 2020

Citation:

Rodriguez Fernandez, Gisela V. 2020. “Neo-Extractivism, the Bolivian State, and Indigenous Peasant Women’s Struggles for Water in the Altiplano.” Human Geography 13 (1): 27–39. 

Author: Gisela V. Rodriguez Fernandez

Abstract:

Keywords: extractivism, Bolivia, indigenous, women, resistance, extractivismo, mujeres indígenas, resistencia

Topics: Development, Extractive Industries, Gender, Women, Indigenous, Infrastructure, Water & Sanitation, Rights, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights Regions: Americas, South America Countries: Bolivia

Year: 2020

Citation:

Caretta, Martina Angela, Sofia Zaragocin, Bethani Turley, and Kamila Torres Orellana. 2020. “Women’s Organizing against Extractivism: Towards a Decolonial Multi-Sited Analysis.” Human Geography 13 (1): 49–59.

Authors: Martina Angela Caretta, Sofia Zaragocin, Bethani Turley, Kamila Torres Orellana

Abstract:

ENGLISH ABSTRACT:
In Anglophone geography, proposals have called for the decolonization of geographical knowledge production to be focused on tangible and material manifestations of how dialogue is initiated and mediated among different ontologies and epistemologies. We strive to respond to this call by empirically cutting across the American continent to highlight the embodied and transnational dimensions of natural resource extraction. Across the Americas, extractive industries’ water usage often brings corporations into prolonged conflicts with local communities, who mobilize to resist the initiation and/or expansion of extractive activities that they view as threatening to their health, way of life, and their families and communities’ territories. Through two case studies from West Virginia (WV), USA, and Cuenca, Ecuador, we propose an analytical framework capturing how women organize against the extractive industry as a result of embodied water pollution. We do this with the aim of decolonizing geographical knowledge production, as we propose a decolonial, multi-sited analytical approach, which serves to rethink the scale of effects of extractive industry. By showing how resource extraction affects women’s bodies and water while also effectively allowing us to compare and contrast embodied water relations in WV and Ecuador, we better understand how extractivism works across scales—the body, the environment, and transnationally. We contend that a multi-sited approach disrupts the North–South geographical discursive divide and furthers a decolonial geographical approach in making apparent the embodied production and lived experience of territory across various scales. In this piece, we promote debates on decoloniality within Anglophone geography by proposing that we must not only consider epistemologies and spatial ontologies outside the western canon, but engage with practices and theories occurring in different parts of the globe in a simultaneous fashion as well. We call on fellow geographers to do the same.

SPANISH ABSTRACT:
En la geografía anglófona, las propuestas han pedido que la descolonización de la producción de conocimiento geográfico se centre en manifestaciones tangibles y materiales de cómo se inicia y media el diálogo entre las diferentes ontologías y epistemologías. Nos esforzamos por responder a este llamado cortando empíricamente a través del continente americano para resaltar las dimensiones encarnadas y transnacionales de la extracción de recursos naturales. En todo el continente americano, el uso del agua de las industrias extractivas a menudo lleva a las empresas a conflictos prolongados con las comunidades locales, que se movilizan para resistir el inicio y / o la expansión de actividades extractivas que consideran amenazadoras para su salud, formas de vida y sus familias y los territorios de sus comunidades. A través de dos estudios de caso de West Virginia (WV), EE. UU. y Cuenca, Ecuador, proponemos un marco analítico que muestra cómo las mujeres se organizan contra la industria extractiva como resultado de la contaminación del agua. Hacemos esto con el objetivo de descolonizar la producción de conocimiento geográfico, ya que proponemos un enfoque analítico descolonial y de múltiples ubicaciones, que sirve para repensar la escala de efectos de la industria extractiva. Al mostrar cómo la extracción de recursos afecta los cuerpos y el agua de las mujeres y, al mismo tiempo, comparar y contrastar de manera efectiva las relaciones hídricas incorporadas en VM y Ecuador, comprendemos mejor cómo funciona el extractivismo en diferentes escalas: el cuerpo, el medio ambiente y transnacionalmente. Sostenemos que un enfoque de múltiples ubicaciones interrumpe la división discursiva geográfica Norte-Sur y promueve un enfoque geográfico descolonial al hacer evidente la producción encarnada y la experiencia vivida del territorio a varias escalas. En este artículo, promovemos debates sobre la descolonialidad dentro de la geografía anglófona al proponer que no solo debemos considerar las epistemologías y las ontologías espaciales fuera del canon occidental, sino también involucrarnos en prácticas y teorías que ocurren en diferentes partes del mundo de manera simultánea. Hacemos un llamado a otros geógrafos para que hagan lo mismo.

Keywords: Ecuador, extractivism, decoloniality, West Virginia, women, extractivismo, Mujeres, descolonialidad, Virginia Occidental

Topics: Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Environment, Extractive Industries, Gender, Women, Health, Infrastructure, Water & Sanitation Regions: Americas, North America, South America Countries: Ecuador, United States of America

Year: 2020