Over the past twenty years, women have moved increasingly from surface support and administrative roles to fully integrated underground mine personnel, writes Nicolaas Steenkamp.
Women perform exceptionally well in operating large equipment like draglines. Image credit: Leon Louw
The mining landscape has changed significantly over the past twenty years. Women working in mines were mainly employed in support or administrative positions. Once the first female professionals started working underground, it made headlines, but today it’s commonplace, and we don’t even blink an eye.
Initial challenges for women in mining
It was, however, a long and hard road to get to this point. The first challenge was something as simple as a female change house. The first females had to change either in offices during very specific time slots in the manager’s change house or in the bathroom and in extreme cases had to stay in their overalls all day.
Today, most mines have dedicated female change houses catering for the needs of their female workers, including provision of sanitary pads or tampons and the safe disposal of the used items.
Women on mining sites have become a common sight. Image credit: Leon Louw
The situation also caused discomfort underground where no toilet facilities were available. The use of one-piece overalls was also found to be problematic as this required female workers to partially undress whenever using the facilities. This was a major issue, as sexual harassment was and is a reality that is dealt with regularly in a mining environment.
PPE: a major challenge
The next challenge was personal protective equipment (PPE). Initially it was thought that PPE is unisex, but it became apparent quickly that this was not the case.
The needs of females had to be taken into consideration when designing overalls, both for one piece and two-piece overalls. It was found that the standard overalls were either oversized or too tight fitting.
This impeded the movement and safety of the wearer and required minor alterations to ensure that the female workers had well-fitting overalls, taking into consideration the female body’s wider hips and breasts, ensuring flexibility and mobility to perform their tasks.
There has also been a movement away from synthetic materials used in the overalls and supplied underwear to natural fibres, such as cotton. The benefit is that natural material is breathable and does not increase body temperature. It also reduces the chafing, and rashes and reduces the risk of infections.
Fortunately, most other PPE is adjustable and able to cater to the needs of female workers. This includes ensuring that hard hats were adjustable and could accommodate hair styles ranging from short to long. This also included introducing hairnets to minimise the risk when working around potential risk areas where hair could catch in infrastructure or moving equipment or machinery parts.
Safety boots were also tailored to fit smaller shoe sizes, again ensuring minimum movement of feet inside the boots and allowing maximum flexibility and mobility for female workers to perform their duties comfortably.
Women in mining are employed in a number of important roles across the mining supply chain. Image credit: Leon Lou
It also reduces discomfort and chafing or blistering due to movement or incorrectly fitted socks being worn. The same applies to gloves, that need to fit snugly, but comfortably to ensure safe working conditions. In general, female hands are shorter and have narrower fingers and a smaller palm circumference.
Ear plugs or muffs are individually manufactured and fitted by most mining operator for all employees that require these. It is a general mine regulation that no jewellery can be worn while on duty, including earrings which may cause discomfort while wearing earmuffs.
The remaining PPE could be considered unisex, including adjustable reflective vests, adjustable gas masks, adjustable knee- or elbow-guards and fitted goggles. It however remains the duty of each worker, regardless of gender, to ensure that all PPE is in a good condition, fit for purpose and well maintained to ensure their own safety.
The working environment has also been adapted to cater for pregnant employees, moving them away from hazardous sites or operating heavy machinery that requires hard physical or manual labour, and assigning the employee to other tasks until they go on maternity leave.
Massive strides have been made in the last two decades to accommodate and include female workers into the mining environment. The mining sector is set to address some of the remaining issues and continue to be guided by organisations such as Woman in Mining (WiM) to ensure better working conditions for all employees.
About the Author
Dr Nicolaas Steenkamp has almost two decades post-qualification experience in the geological, geotechnical and industry. He has been involved in a variety of consultation activities ranging from exploration, geochemistry, geological and geotechnical investigations, desktop and market studies, country reviews, due diligence, EPCM contract management and related feasibility studies. www.bowlineps.co.za