Gender and the Extractive Industries: An Overview
Publisher: World Bank
Topics: Extractive Resources, Gender
The Oil, Gas, and Mining industries (herein extractive industries) have the potential to deliver significant growth and development opportunities for host countries. In many countries, though, women have been largely excluded from these benefits, while being at the same time disproportionately vulnerable to many of the risks associated with the extractive industries. These asymmetries – in employment as well as community engagement – can be both bad for business, as well as contributing to negative social and economic outcomes at the community level, and have long been overlooked in the sector (UNDP, 2015). Conversely, improved gender diversity in workforces can have business benefits; increased engagement with community women can strengthen community relations and perceptions of operators; and investment in women in the community is known to deliver long-term health, education and local development outcomes (Keenan, Kemp, 2014). Improved understanding of the gender-dimensions of the extractive industries can help ensure that these industries support women and positive development outcomes. This knowledge note highlights how the extractive industries differently impact men and women. It outlines the potential costs of failing to understand these impacts, as well as outlining how government, civil society, and private sector actors can help build women’s capacity to access development opportunities and influence community engagement.