Week 4: A Brief History of Women in Mining

“No female, whatever her age, shall be employed on underground work in any mine” – Article 2, International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention 45, 1935.

Let’s unpack this a bit – my initial thoughts are that this directive is upsetting, but unsurprising given the era. To be clear, I hardly think the “era” makes an action like this less unethical or more worthy of forgiveness; Yet, it’s still unsurprising. Although, what puzzles me about this ruling is that it’s totally impractical. You would think that it would be in a company’s best interest to keep employment options as fruitful as possible rather than forbidding half the population from working and contributing to an enterprise – especially during the subsequent wartime. Albeit, I suppose when it comes to matters of discrimination, one shouldn’t expect the oppressors to ever make sense anyway. What’s even more shocking is that Germany didn’t withdraw from this agreement until 2008.

The mining world wasn’t always this way, though; There exists documented history of women involved in mining & mining-related activity dating back centuries ago. In the early modern period (1500-1700), women played an active role in the extraction & processing of minerals all over the world. In Europe’s coal industry, men held jobs as hewers while women would break, rinse, sort, wash, and haul ores but they would only receive half the pay of men¹. During this time in Scotland, nearly 40% of workers in Scottish mines were women². In India, diamond mining was a family affair, where women and children hauled waste; In New Grenada (Colombia) and Brazil, women were mineworkers in the silver and gold mines¹. However, it is important to note that during this time, in many regions the workers (women, men, and children alike) were slaves and not paid for their labour at all.

It wasn’t until the 19th and 20th century when women were barred from mining (and most labour work otherwise) due to the emergence of domestic dogmatic ideology throughout many regions (This paradigm shift is a testament to the fickleness of humanity’s values – the moral codes and ethics we currently value are in no way concrete, and it is not guaranteed that they will continue to progress in what is accepted as a “good” way). One of the first instances of the legislative dismissal of women in the mining industry was not the ILO’s Article 2, but rather the United Kingdom’s Mines and Collieries Act of 1842 which was the result of an inquiry ordered by Queen Victoria. We’ve all heard this lousy narrative a million times: many viewed the contributions of women as inefficient, unproductive, and many figured women to be better suited to take care of the home. Though the underground mining conditions for women & men (and often children) were deplorable, it was ultimately society’s misogynistic perspective on the human body that led to the expulsion of women in mines.

“The greatest scandal was not the brutal work, which damaged women’s health, but revelations that they worked topless alongside naked men… Respectable miners and owners felt that hauling coal was not an acceptable job for a woman, as some men did work naked. Men often refused to allow their womenfolk underground and some owners stopped girls working as soon as they reached adolescence… Male witnesses stressed that underground work robbed women of decency of feeling and the skills to run a home, the harrowing testimonies of female miners contradicted the picture of immoral, ungodly women who lacked the ability or motivation to be good wives and mothers.”

³History Extra. “The Scandal of Female Miners in 19th-Century Britain”. 2012.

Society’s unfortunate sexualization of the human body is a topic entirely too much to handle in a blog like this, but its impact on the history of women in mining is evident from this passage. Despite the ruling of the Mines and Collieries Act of 1842, many women still went to work in the mines in the UK due to significant financial pressures⁴. “Pit Brow Lasses” could be found in mines often dressed to appear as men, wearing trousers and hauling coal all the same.

Despite the preventative efforts of judiciaries all over the world, women could still be found indirectly supporting mine operations (but wouldn’t be paid due to the “unproductiveness” of their labour, as opposed to “productive” labour which was associated with direct mineral extraction activity). In the early 1900s West Virginia coal industry, Women tended to the mine-owned houses and camps⁵. For example, they would haul water from nearby creeks or water pumps for campsite use. Women were critical to the sustainability of these company-owned sites, but their work went unrecognized. It isn’t unrealistic to believe that companies may have had a part in perpetuating such a concept as “unproductive labour” since undermining the value of one’s work means you don’t have to pay them as much (or in this case, at all). This prompts the question: how directly does one have to contribute to an enterprise to be considered worthy of pay? Let it be known that my take on this is simple and agreeable (I hope): if someone contributes to the operation of your company in any way, you must pay them!

The women of the West Virginian coal mines were also pivotal during labour conflicts over unsafe working conditions. When mining companies attempted to replace striking workers, women were responsible for destruction of train tracks that transported stand-in workers to the mine⁵. This movement led to the rise of one of the coal industry’s greatest revolutionaries – Mary Harris “Mother Jones”. Mother Jones was a labour rights activist whose impact is far-reaching and present to this day, especially in the context of child labour law and workplace safety.

Though this blog entry happens to provide a brief history of women in mining, there is in fact nothing brief about such history. Women have been critical constituents in the institution of mining for a substantial amount of time, even despite the claims that their contributions were “unproductive” by those who knew better. My biggest takeaway from my little research has taught me that there is one thing we can always be certain of in this industry: women will always find a way to participate in it. Many believe that the implications of a ruling from 1935 may hold no influence over modern day affairs, but this is simply untrue. There are still relics of the International Labour Organization’s 1935 Article 2 in mines all over the world. Some examples of Article 2 relics include: the lack of PPE designed to suit women’s bodies; the fact that women make up only 14% of Canada’s mining industry⁶; awkwardly placed changerooms and bathrooms at mines, and so on. Some of these relics have profound implications, some do not – but nevertheless they exist and are constant reminders that at one time I would have been not welcome at my workplace. After all, the mine I currently work at existed far before Canada legally allowed women to work underground in 1978, and we didn’t have our first woman work underground until after 2002. Either way, I’m here now. As such, anybody who objects to my presence or believes that I’d be better suited for home-tending (forgive me but this is as succinct and tactful as I care to phrase it) can go fuck themselves.

PS: The paper I have cited written by Romano & Papastefanaki is an excellent read. If anyone is interested in learning more about this subject I highly recommend it.

(July 21st, 2020)

¹ R. Romano, L. Papastefanaki. “Women and Gender in the Mines: Challenging Masculinity Through History: An Introduction”. 2020.
² D. Turner, D. Blackie. “Disability in the Industrial Revolution”. 2018.
³ History Extra. “The Scandal of Female Miners in 19th-Century Britain”. 2012.
⁴ History Extra. “The ‘Pit Brow Lasses’ of 19th-century coal mines”. 2018.
⁵ Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). “Women in the Mine Towns”. 2019.
⁶ T. Nyabeze, S. Espley, D. Beneteau. “Gaining Insights on Career Satisfaction for Women in Mining”. 2010.