How Mining Multinational Corporations Promote Women? Modus Operandi

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate approaches to the promotion of the involvement of women in the international mining industry. In order to identify approaches to promote women in international mining industry, the researchers adopted an exploratory, interpretive approach to work with mining MNCs in Lao PDR. We interviewed 10 key participants from two mining multinational corporations in Laos. Gender discourses were developed in order to comprehend ‘talk’ and ‘texts’ as social practices as well as the concepts of ‘women at workplace’ from the perspectives of both men and women. The results show that various approaches can be adopted to promote women. They include (1) encouragement of women, (2) promotion of equal opportunity, and (3) celebration of women and diversity. This study also confirms, in traditionally male-dominant industry such as international mining, management requires extra and specific gender-related expert support in order to effectively promote women’s participation in the workplace.