About the Book
Contrary to their masculine portrayal, mines have always employed women in valuable and productive roles. Yet, pit life continues to be represented as a masculine world of work, legitimizing men as the only mineworkers and large, mechanized, and capitalized operations as the only form of mining. Bringing together a range of case studies of women miners from past and present in Asia, the Pacific region, Latin America and Africa, this book makes visible the roles and contributions of women as miners. It also highlights the importance of engendering small and informal mining in the developing world as compared to the early European and American mines. The book shows that women are engaged in various kinds of mining and illustrates how gender and inequality are constructed and sustained in the mines, and also how ethnic identities intersect with those gendered identities.
Table of Contents:
Contents: Introduction: Where life is in the pits (and elsewhere) and gendered, Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt and Martha Macintyre. Reconstructing Gendered Histories of Mines: Women miners: here and there, now and then, Gill Burke; Japanese coal mining: women discovered, Sachiko Sone; Race, gender and the tin-mining industry in Malaya, 1900-1950, Amarjit Kaur; Patriarchy, colonialism and capitalism: unearthing the history of Adivasi women miners of Chotanagpur, Shashank S. Sinha. Gender and Ethnic Identities in the Mines: Digging through layers of class, gender and ethnicity: Korean women miners in prewar Japan, W. Donald Smith; Women working in the mining industry in Papua New Guinea: a case study from Lihir, Martha Macintyre; Traditional small scale miners: women miners of the Philippines, Evelyn J. Caballero; Mining gender at work in the Indian collieries: identity construction by Kamins, Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt. Gender in the Mining Economies: The place of women in mining in the Cordillera region, Philippines, Minerva Chaloping-March; Women in artisanal and small scale mining in Africa, Jennifer J. Hinton, Barbara E. Hinton and Marcello M. Veiga; Women in the mining industry of contemporary China, Linqing Yao; Women in small-scale gold mining in Papua New Guinea, Geoff Crispin; The invisible work of women in the small mines of Bolivia, Els Van Hoecke. Global Processes, Local Resistances: Gendered labour in peripheral tropical frontiers: women, mining and capital accumulation in post-development Amazonia, Jeannette Graulau; Women miners, human rights and poverty, Ingrid Macdonald; Roti do, ya goli do! (give us bread, or give us bullets!): stories of struggles of women workers in Bhowra colliery, India, Lindsay Barnes; Globalization and women's work in the mine pits in East Kalimantan, Indonesia, Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt; Index.
About the Author :
Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt is a Research Fellow at the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies at The Australian National University, Australia. She has researched gender and mining since 1993 in the eastern Indian collieries and in the small quarries in India and elsewhere in South Asia. Since 2004, she has also worked on the gender concerns in the mining industry of Indonesia. Kuntala has been active in the recent initiatives taken up by both the non-governmental organizations and international agencies operating at different levels on the mainstreaming of gender issues in mining. Martha Macintyre is a Senior Lecturer in Medical Anthropology at The University of Melbourne, Australia. She has held research positions at Monash University and the Australian National University, and taught in Anthropology and Women's Studies at La Trobe University. Over the last twenty-five year's research in Papua New Guinea Martha has published numerous articles on women and gender. She has been monitoring the social and economic impacts of the Lihir goldmine since 1995.
Review :
’The essays in this collection provide a timely and powerful critique of the assumptions commonly made about gender relations and the marginalisation of women in communities and regions where mining is the main form of economic activity. They are essential reading for anyone interested in the complex relationships between industry, gender and development.’ Dr Colin Filer, The Australian National University, Australia ’Women Miners in Developing Countries makes an important contribution by bringing attention to gender aspects of mining, which today are unrecognized by much of the global industry. The book demonstrates that in the past women miners have all too often been second class citizens and it is time to create a level playing field. The book is important for all who are concerned to see the mining industry provide employment opportunities that contribute to poverty alleviation and sustainable development. I highly recommend the book...[it] points the way forward with contemporary examples of how women's status and work activities in mining can be given the due respect that they deserve.’ John Strongman, Mining Adviser, Oil, Gas, Mining and Chemicals Department, World Bank, USA ’Women Miners in Developing Countries: Pit Women and Others makes a solid contribution to the evolving body of literature on extractive industries and gender. Its 17 chapters...are rich in detail on the role of women in the mining industries in Bolivia, India, Indonesia, Korea, Japan, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea.’ Development in Practice '...this volume is an excellent revelation on women miners who face down social, economic and political norms in order to earn a living.' Journal of Contemporary Asia
