Who gets protected? The gender gap in mineral due diligence
Women are increasingly recognised as an essential part of the mining workforce and the broader mineral value chain. Yet the due diligence systems meant to identify, prevent and address harm in the global value chains are largely blind to women's experiences.
That gap was the subject of a recent webinar hosted by DiliCHANCE, a three-year EU Horizon Europe project co-led by EIT RawMaterials focused on human rights and environmental due diligence across mineral value chains.
When due diligence isn’t neutral
Due diligence efforts often treat risks as if they're gender neutral. Without understanding gender differences and exposure to risks, it's harder to properly identify effective prevention and mitigation mechanisms.
Sophie Rickard, policy analyst at the OECD Centre for Responsible Business Conduct
Other experts shared this view.
If gender equality is not embedded throughout the due diligence process, then we can exacerbate gender inequalities and structural inequalities.
Ege Tekinbaş, expert on gender equality and social inclusion at the Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals, Metals and Sustainable Development (IGF)
The risk, Tekinbaş noted, isn't evenly spread. In large-scale mining, stricter ESG requirements, investor scrutiny and more robust due diligence processes mean companies are generally more likely to identify and address potential harms. Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM), where women make up an estimated 18% to 50% of the workforce across Latin America and South America, Africa, and Asia, according to a World Bank report, has far less protection. It's where the risks to women are most likely to go unreported.
Where women are most at risk
A significant proportion of women in mining environments report experiencing sexual harassment or coercion. Much of this traces back to structural barriers: limited access to land, financing, equipment, and formal contracts leave women more exposed to exploitative arrangements.
According to the 2023 State of the Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining Sector report from Delve and the World Bank, armed groups and abusive officials in some conflict zones often threaten and coerce people into digging or processing ore.
This can look like a gender-neutral problem, but it isn't, because tasks such as crushing, washing, panning, sieving, sorting, and mercury amalgamation are typically done by women.
Ege Tekinbaş, Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals, Metals and Sustainable Development (IGF)
Trafficking is another gendered risk that recurs across countries and throughout the ASM sector, she said. The same report notes that girls and women from several countries, including Bolivia, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, and Peru, have been trafficked to mining areas after being lured by promises of economic opportunity.
Our women miners are not waiting to be included. We are already doing the work.
Zenzi Awases, President of the Association of Women in Mining in Africa (AWIMA)
The view from the ground
However, mining is also an important livelihood for many women. As the experts noted, it can make the difference between having food on the table or not.
Zenzi Awases, President of the Association of Women in Mining in Africa (AWIMA) and a trained geologist, said that African women working in ASM are an important part of the international supply chain. (Read her interview with DiliCHANCE on why due diligence must go beyond a tick-box exercise.)
Responsible sourcing is ultimately about people, by considering how risks and impacts affect different groups, organisations can better identify, prevent, and address adverse impacts throughout their value chains. Through DiliCHANCE, we are creating a space for meaningful dialogue on more inclusive and effective due diligence. We look forward to continuing the conversation through future webinars and events.
Isadora Costa, Senior Project Officer, Responsible Sourcing, EIT RawMaterials
To protect them, it is essential for the potential harm to be visible. Yet data is often not collected, as most due diligence tools are not designed to capture gender-related labour dynamics. This was described by Awases as a persistent “supply chain intelligence failure.”
AWIMA, a co-partner of the DiliCHANCE project, has conducted its own field research (with a forthcoming publication) in a major African copper- and cobalt-producing country that clearly illustrates this gap.
Eighty-two percent of respondents identified gender discrimination as a barrier to women's participation. Seventy-five percent of ASM operators had no awareness of the international due diligence requirements their own buyers are obliged to meet. Only 29 percent of operators were fully licensed, meaning more than seven in ten operate outside any formal system, invisible to due diligence processes.
Downstream blind spots
While gender-related risks are often associated with mining, they do not end at the mine site.
The gender blindness of our current due diligence models also follows the silicon all the way into our cleanest labs and most advanced packaging facilities.
Madhuparna Datta, Application Engineer Director at Cadence Design Systems and a global ambassador for the Society of Women Engineers
In semiconductor R&D, design and high-tech manufacturing, the problem is one of representation: women make up less than 20 percent of technical roles in many companies. Datta said.
As a result, design frameworks, software interfaces, hardware testing, and even clean-room apparel and VR testing goggles are often built around male physiological and cognitive baselines.
That same question of whose body is treated as the standard persists further down the supply chain. In outsourced assembly and testing, where women dominate lower-paid manual production line roles, they face high exposure to toxic chemicals that directly affect maternal and reproductive health. Yet exposure limits are still often based on historical male body standards.
The global semiconductor industry is facing an acute talent shortage. We cannot solve that shortage while alienating or failing to retain half of the potential talent pool through outdated, gender-blind workplace practices. True sustainability means designing environments that can safely accommodate 100 percent of the workforce, not just 60 to 70 percent of it.
Madhuparna Datta, Application Engineer Director at Cadence Design Systems
Making gender visible in due diligence
Across both the upstream and downstream ends of the value chain, the underlying problem is the same: systems are often designed without accounting for the full diversity of the workforce.
The experts called for due diligence mechanisms to embed gender considerations from the outset, including mandatory gender-disaggregated data, gender-responsive standards and risk assessment tools, and reporting channels that are anonymous, trauma-informed and trusted enough for workers to use.
Awases argued that women must be treated as active participants in the due diligence process, with a seat at the table, rather than simply as subjects who appear in findings.
The due diligence frameworks governing the sector must reflect the realities of everyone who makes it possible, including the women mining the minerals that power it.
Zenzi Awases, President of the Association of Women in Mining in Africa (AWIMA)
DiliCHANCE is a three-year EU Horizon Europe project supported by EIT RawMaterials and coordinated by the University of Vienna, in collaboration with a consortium of partners. The initiative focuses on human rights and environmental due diligence across mineral value chains. Interested in joining future DiliCHANCE webinars and learning more about our work? Explore upcoming webinars and project updates here.
To discover more EIT RawMaterials events, webinars and the annual Partner Day, visit the News & Events page.
For further resources on gender equality in mining and artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM), visit:
The 2023 State of the Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining Sector Report by DELVE and the World Bank.
Achieving Sustainable and Inclusive Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining (ASM): A Renewed Framework for World Bank Engagement by the World Bank, published in 2023.
Women and the Mine of the Future Global Report by the International Forum on Mining, Minerals, and Sustainable Development, published in 2023.
