Abstract:

Historically, mining has been a male dominated industry and a lot of initiatives have been put in place to encourage women to be part of the industry for years, but the number of women and the few roles that they have in the 20^th century mining industry is appalling. This comes as no surprise to many who are well-versed in the mining ways, but still discourages thousands of women studying mining at tertiary level. This research focuses on why the number of the females are still very low after all the effort made to be inclusive, and how to engage all the genders in order to create a balance that will benefit the industry at large. This paper also sheds a light on a number of female mining engineers, geologist and metallurgist that are failing to secure a career in the industry where opportunities are mostly given to males unjustifiably. This brings about questions on whether policies are there for diversity management in mining companies and if follow ups are done after encouraging females to enrol in mining courses at university. A majority of females attest to how chances of getting a job after studying mining are low, and how companies employ a single female to prove how diverse their company. The employed females complain of lack of mentorship and support at the workplace leading to insufficient career and development guidance, the hygiene facilities are very limited and the roles they are offered are seldom managerial posts. A lot of advertising and campaigns are done with women on posters as the company's brand ambassador but suprisingly women employment has not been increasing. Women then move into the small scale and artisanal mines where they can effect little to no change on the industry.

Biography of the presenter: I am a 25 year old mining and mineral processing engineering graduate from Zimbabwe. After graduation in 2018, I started to write papers on how mining was the biggest employing industry in Zimbabwe after farming but all the females I had enrolled the mining program were failing to secure jobs. The government still encouraged females to study the program but completely ignored us after we received our degree certificates.

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Ms. Kelly Mangwengwende

Biography