‘Mining women’and livelihoods: Examining the dominant and emerging issues in the ASM gendered economic space

George Ofosu, David Sarpong, Mabel Torbor, Shadrack Asante

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The intractable challenges faced by female mine workers have come to dominate the discourse and scholarship on artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) operations. However, the extensive focus on the informal and labour-intensive segments has engendered a failure to capture the nuances in the duality of ASM operations and how it impacts female outcomes. Drawing on intersectionality as a lens, in this article the authors map the dynamics on how issues related to the gender, situatedness and positionality of female mine workers interact to shape their situated labour outcomes. Highlighting the differentiated outcomes for female mine workers within the contingencies of the broader socio-cultural context in which ASM work is organised, the article sheds light on how the social identity structures such as gender, sexuality and class interact to give form to the marginalisation, occupational roles, the ‘boom town’ narrative and occupational and health challenges that characterise the ASM gendered economic space.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1213-1241
Number of pages29
JournalEconomic and Industrial Democracy
Volume45
Issue number4
Early online date8 Jan 2024
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Nov 2024

Bibliographical note

© The Author(s) 2024. his article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).

Keywords

  • Artisanal and small-scale mining
  • gender
  • inequality
  • women

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