A weekend of inspiring & powerful posts marking International Day of Women in Mining by so many women who are transforming our industry.
The theme, "I am Mining and I Belong" to me was both a recognition, maybe a small celebration even, on how far we have come in my 40 years, but also a challenge. As I've become more engaged with Women In Mining serving as a committee member and now also a board member for the WIM Denver chapter, there are occasions where I am the only man “in the room”. I’ve got to tell you it feels a little odd at first, but I quickly realized this is how every woman in the industry has felt in some form or fashion although I was never never made to feel like I did not belong or unwelcome. But that is one of the privileges of being male in a male dominated industry. I’ve never had to think – to declare and affirm that “I belong”. It was always just accepted.
We could, if we chose, flip the switch on much that leads to a sense of not belonging. We could fix the signage, the language in policies & procedures, that is gender specific and exclusionary. We could realize that PPE designed for men is not suitable for women. Maybe it is not be too much to hope for that we could be truly welcoming of women in all facets of our industry & recognize the incredible value they bring. But so long as women are less than 20% of our industry, that odd feeling of being “the only woman in the room” is inevitably likely to persist. And that is not something we can flip a switch and change tomorrow, or even next year. It is probably generational change, but we have to be dedicated to bringing that change about.
Seeing comments on not being a real miner and so not fully belonging and seeing the response from IWIM and others reinforcing the sense of belonging to women “who work in, around and with the mining industry”, my thoughts gravitated to my wife Joy who is a truly amazing woman about to embark in a new role as a school principal. She probably should have been in this role 10 years ago but she as much as I embodies mining and belongs in this industry. All of us, women or men, know the incredible demands mining places on a partner, knows what it is to have someone keeping the home functioning when we left for work at 4:30 in the morning, or do not get home until late at night, to manage the demands of shift work, remote (FIFO) work, or seemingly endless work being gone or working through weekends to get the job done. The demands of making a new home when the job required another relocation. For now, at least while less than 20% of the mining workforce are women, it has been primarily women who in fact represent more than 80% of this amazing and talented contingent and without whom, so many men like myself could not have accomplished what we have. It is as much our partner’s accomplishment as ours, and often on top of all those other things they did as a de facto single parent, they were also building a career.
#IDWIM2024 #IamMiningandIBelong
Vice President - Latin America at Dyno Nobel
1moNicely done Lorraine. Congratulations