7 from the industry (ICMM 2009). The Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) also has several provisions that target women and their needs in the context of mining operations. However, the MEM requirements and monitoring are very limited, as they do not demand for any specific form of analysis on the situation of women and their enforcement mechanisms of compliance need to be solidified (WB 2011). Therefore, it is clear that there is a huge gap in hard and soft law to address women’s needs, wellbeing, and rights within the mining industry. Vis-à-vis the vast number of laws and regulations to address other social, political, and environmental dilemmas in EI, it is clear that women are also marginalized in the political and legal arena, since their rights seem to come second to other more popular, yet equally important, set of issues. Recommendations for integration Regardless of the many gaps and challenges to improve women’s wellbeing in EI, scholars agree that a difference can be made to ensure a more equitable working environment, by making external and internal structural changes to EI operations. Concerning internal changes, companies need to change their approaches to deal with gender issues, for example, they could appoint a gender team that creates gender-specific policies and supports the implementation of gender-sensitive development programs in the communities. Such policies and practices should be adapted to the local context and cultures, in consultation with local in-house specialists in community relations (WB 2011). Women also need to be more equally included in the workforce, for example, by implementing policies that ensure a minimum percentage of employment goes to women, so that their representation in mining industries is extended. Legislations for restricting women’s labor participation in mining should also be reexamined and revised based on recent technological improvements and social progress in gender equality (MSSD 2003). While these first recommendations may seem to attend the symptoms rather than the causes of women’s inequality, they might be the first steps towards equalizing gender disparities in EI. Externally, there is a pressing need to implement voluntary principles and instruments of law to closely monitor and evaluate gender performance across various stages of the mine (MSSD 2003). The EI also needs to better understand the local context for women’s environmental, social, political, and economic situation, and measure the risks and benefits the industry exposes this group
to. In order to do this, the WB (2011) suggests companies partake in equal consultation with women to understand their rights, roles and interests. Lozeva and Marinova (2011:7) further emphasize this need by claiming: “the impact of mining on women has been exacerbated by the failure to identify them as a distinct group of stakeholders in the planning and operation of mine sites, and to establish trusted means of communication.” The authors explain how consultation and communication usually occur through community leaders that are predominantly male. Consequently, women’s needs are not vocalized and tend to be subordinate to the broader goals and interests of the community, as thought of by men. This goes to show how more efforts should be put into creating channels of communication between the mine and personal and local women, and on implementing more gender-inclusive development practices with the help of local NGO’s. Local women’s groups and movements should also receive better support from companies, to create a platform where women can express their ways of life and validate their voices (WB 2011). These associations are also instrumental in “lobbying for support of women in mining, training women in environmentally sound mining methods, establishing revolving loan funds, and facilitating the marketing of members’ products” (MMSD 2003: 361). Therefore, if women’s risks from the EI are to be reduced and the benefits increased, they need to be actively incorporated into decision-making processes, negotiations and social participation in mining initiatives. However, the international community disagrees on the appropriate means to attend to women’s needs and increase equality within mining. While it is often suggested that women’s situations should be measured through separate consultation,
some scholars believe that women should not be isolated from