Women and the Mine of the Future: Global Report

The report analyzes women's participation in large-scale mining across 12 countries, finding that while female employment is slowly increasing, the sector remains highly masculinized with significant structural barriers. Women often possess higher general educational attainment than men but lack the specific technical and vocational qualifications required for core operational roles. The report identifies a 'leaky pipeline' where women exit the workforce at younger ages, often due to non-inclusive working conditions, lack of childcare, and sexist corporate cultures. It further examines how disruptive technologies (AI, automation) and the energy transition (demand for critical minerals) will reshape the labor market, warning that without targeted upskilling, women may be disproportionately displaced from clerical and low-skill roles while remaining excluded from high-skill digital and technical positions. The document concludes with policy recommendations for governments and companies to implement gender-responsive strategies, pay equity reviews, and inclusive health and safety standards.

• Women are globally underrepresented in large-scale mining, though some countries show a slow upward trend in participation. In a sample of 12 countries, female participation rates ranged from 9% in Peru to 25% in Sweden.
• Women in the mining sector generally have higher levels of academic education than their male counterparts, but they lack the specific technical and vocational qualifications needed for core mining operations.
• A 'leaky pipeline' exists in the sector, where women drop out of the workforce at an earlier age than men, typically between the 35–44 and 45–54 age brackets.
• Women are disproportionately concentrated in clerical, administrative, and support roles, while being severely underrepresented in technical, craft, and machine operator positions.
• The gender pay gap persists across the sector, with women earning significantly less than men. In Australia, women earn 83% of men's salaries, and in Ghana, the median gender pay gap was 27.5% in 2013.
• Workplace conditions are often hostile to women, characterized by a lack of gender-appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE), inadequate sanitation facilities, and a culture of sexual harassment and gender-based violence.
• Disruptive technologies, such as AI and automation, pose a high risk of displacement for low-to-mid-skilled workers, particularly in clerical support roles which are predominantly held by women.
• The energy transition is increasing demand for 'critical' minerals (e.g., lithium, cobalt, copper), which may create opportunities for women in exploration and environmental engineering, where they are already more proportionately represented.
• Women in mining are more vulnerable to job loss during economic downturns than men, as seen in Mongolia where women lost 34% of mining jobs during the pandemic compared to a 7.4% drop for men.
• There is a significant dearth of consistent, gender-disaggregated data in the mining sector, which hinders the design of evidence-based policies. Most national statistics use binary sex categories and ignore non-binary or trans individuals.

APA

International Institute for Sustainable Development (2023). Women and the Mine of the Future: Global Report. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2023-04/women-mine-of-the-future-global-report.pdf

Chicago

International Institute for Sustainable Development. Women and the Mine of the Future: Global Report. 2023. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2023-04/women-mine-of-the-future-global-report.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=International Institute for Sustainable Development |title=Women and the Mine of the Future: Global Report |date=April 2023 |url=https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2023-04/women-mine-of-the-future-global-report.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{internationalinstituteforsustainabledevelopment2023women, author = {{International Institute for Sustainable Development}}, title = {{Women and the Mine of the Future: Global Report}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2023}, month = apr, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2023-04/women-mine-of-the-future-global-report.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }