A social relations of gender analysis of artisanal and small-scale mining in Africa’s Great Lakes Region

ABSTRACT

Much research on gender and artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) has tended to focus on describing the different roles women undertake in mining, while there has been less attention to how gender relations are constructed, reinforced and challenged in and through ASM. Drawing from desk and field research in the Great Lakes Region of Africa, this paper presents a framework to analyse gender dynamics in ASM along four interrelated dimensions of gender relations: division of labour; access to and control over resources and benefits; decision-making; and gender norms. The authors argue that unequal gender relations in ASM are mainly legitimized by gender norms that produce, and are reinforced by, the varying abilities of women and men to make decisions and control resources. Findings also describe the diversity and instability of gender relations, and demonstrate how gender inequalities can be and are being challenged by women miners.

RÉSUMÉ

De nombreuses recherches sur le genre et l’exploitation minière artisanale à petite échelle (EMAPE) ont eu tendance à se focaliser sur la description des différents rôles que jouent les femmes dans le secteur minier, alors que moins d’attention a été prêtée à la façon dont les relations entre les genres sont construites, renforcées et remises en question dans et à travers l’EMAPE. À partir de recherches documentaires et de terrain dans la région des Grands Lacs en Afrique, cet article présente un cadre d’analyse de la dynamique de genre dans l’EMAPE, selon quatre dimensions interdépendantes des relations de genre: division du travail; accès aux ressources et aux avantages, et contrôle de ceux-ci; prise de décision; et normes de genre. Les auteurs soutiennent que les relations inégales entre les genres dans l’EMAPE sont principalement légitimées par des normes de genre qui produisent et sont renforcées par les capacités variables des femmes et des hommes à prendre des décisions et à contrôler les ressources. Les résultats décrivent également la diversité et l’instabilité des relations entre les genres, et démontrent comment les inégalités entre les genres peuvent être et sont remises en question par les femmes dans le secteur minier.

KEYWORDS:

• gender
• social relations
• women
• artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM)
• Great Lakes Region

MOTS-CLÉS:

• genre
• relations sociales
• femmes
• exploitation minière artisanale et à petite échelle (EMAPE)
• région des Grands Lacs

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Blair Rutherford and Doris Buss for valuable comments on an earlier draft. The paper draws on work funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Among these are the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas, the Regional Certification Mechanisms (RCM) and related efforts of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), and multiple legal reforms adopted or under review by member states of the ICGLR.

2. Based on van Eerdewijk and Danielsen (2015).

3. Molyneux (1985) defines gender strategic interests as interests arising from women’s subordinate position in the gender division of labour and in relation to resources, and as interests women have in common despite their differences.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Katrine Danielsen

Katrine Danielsen is a gender equality and social justice advisor at KIT Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam. Much of her work on gender, agriculture and natural resources management is situated at the interfaces between policy, research and practice, such as her work on gender-transformative approaches.

Jennifer Hinton

Jennifer Hinton is an internationally recognized gender and mining expert. She has over 15 years of experience addressing social, economic, policy, institutional, technical and environmental challenges in the minerals sector in almost 20 countries.