Between the NGOisation of feminism and the feminisation of mining

In many African countries, women make up large parts of the workforce in artisanal and small-scale mining communities (ASM). They carry out activities ranging from providing tertiary services (selling drinks, food, and sex) to unearthing gold ores and participating in the gold trade. While women remained largely invisible to academics, NGOs and states in the past, recent feminist publications and development programmes have increased the visibility of women and gender in mining (e.g. ‘the Feminisation of mining’, Lahiri-Dutt, 2015). Many aid programmes, however, often lump together women and mining into one homogenising category, highlighting women’s vulnerability. Rather than putting victimcy ahead of agency and contributing to an NGO-isation of the mining discourse whereby “regulation” is put forward as a panacea to gender inequality (regulation of both the public and private sphere), this paper highlights how female miners take advantage of the blurred contours of the mining space to manage the unpredictable, varied and potentially dangerous conditions of everyday life in the mine.status: publishe