Small-Scale Gold Mining and Gender Roles: Critical Reflections on Socio-Cultural Dynamics in North-Eastern Ghana
Publisher: Social Sciences
Author(s): Jennifer D. Mengba, Raymond A. Atanga, and Constance A. Akurugu
Date: 2022
Topics: Extractive Resources, Gender
Countries: Ghana
This article is a critical examination of socio-cultural factors and dynamics and the extent to which they inflect gender roles in small-scale gold mining (SSGM) in north-eastern Ghana. Normatively, the north-eastern part of Ghana is inherently male-dominant and patriarchal with gender roles strictly divided between women and men and tightly policed by social norms. The article draws on feminist political economy and paid work and postcolonial theoretical perspectives combined with in-depth interviews conducted in five mining settlements in the Talensi District of the Upper East Region to develop a framework for analysis. Based on the analysis of the field data this study contributes to the existing discourses on gender roles and small-scale mining in several ways.