Paper short abstract:

This paper examines strategies used by women to thrive in artisanal gold mining in Tonkolili District as well as their future in the sector in relation to the extensive use of excavators and the newly enacted Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Act 2022.

Paper long abstract:

Precarity has and continues to be central to women’s experiences in artisanal gold mining in Tonkolili. Nevertheless, a few women have been able to beat the odds and thrive in this sector in the face of immense gendered expectations and discrimination. This paper examines the strategies used by these women to transgress these challenges and become successful entrepreneurs in their communities. It also examines the centrality of (in)access to finance in the futures of women’s growth in artisanal mining in Tonkolili and argues that in the future women, on the one hand, will find it difficult to survive in the sector because of extensive use of excavators, the capital intensiveness of the process and the push for formalization but on the other hand, may thrive if they are able to exert their agency and push for the full implementation of the section on financial inclusion for women and access to finance in the recently enacted Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Act, 2022.