It’s Raining Men – Gender in the Indonesian Mining Sector. Vol 121

Introduction.

Indonesia is a nation of highly diverse cultures that is held together under the motto “Unity in Diversity” [Bhinneka Tunggal Ika] to promote tolerance, and sums up our global common humanity. Women have always worked within the Indonesian mining industry, though traditionally with gender identified specific roles. A generation ago women may have comprised about 1% of the workforce, but this has increased with the opening up of high schools and universities to welcome women in science, engineering, business and similar studies.  The larger international exploration and mining companies played a pioneering role in developing todays modern mining industry, including the encouragement of women to enter all parts of the mining industry. Women in Mining is a mainstream issue, with many government bodies and NGO’s operating in this space.

This article takes a quick look at today’s Indonesia’s Women in Mining in the formal mining sector.

Terminology.

It seems every discussion group, industry sector, government agency appears to use common terms, but with different meaning or application. A suitable definition may be found in the UNDP Indonesia Gender Equality Strategy and Action Plan (2017-2020) as outlined in the booklet “Change Makers”. The section on terminology is summarized here:

• Gender: “Refers to the social attributes, opportunities and interactions associated with being male and female. Gender determines what is expected, allowed and valued in for females and males. Gender is part of the broader socio-cultural context. Other important criteria for socio-cultural analysis include class, race, poverty level, ethnic group and age.”
• Gender Equality: “Refers to the equal rights, responsibilities and opportunities of female and male. Equality does not mean that women and men will become the same but that their rights, responsibilities and opportunities will not depend on whether they are born male or female. Gender equality is not a ‘women’s issue’.
• Gender Mainstreaming: Mainstreaming a gender perspective is the process of assessing the implication for women and men of any planned action, including legislation, policies or programmes, in all areas and at all levels. The ultimate goal is to achieve gender equality.” A different reference refers to gender mainstreaming at the mine site as “add women and stir”.
• Gender -based Violence: Gender-based violence is a form of discrimination that seriously inhibits women’s or men’s ability to enjoy rights and freedoms on a basis of gender equality”.
• Gender Parity: “Refers to equal numbers of men and women at all levels of the organization.
• Women’s Rights: “The human rights are to be applied to all people. The full and equal participation of women in all matters, and eradication of discrimination based on sex that may reduce their human rights.
• Woman’s Empowerment: The core of empowerment lies in the ability of a woman to control her own destiny. This may include equal opportunities in development, wealth, politics, and choices.

Gender Data.

UNDP tools and platforms reinforce evidence-based programming for improving parity, participation and representation of women and men. Sex-disaggregated data and gender statistics are critical for evidence-informed decisions and results-based programs that promote gender equality and women’s empowerment. There is a lack of reliable factual data on the impact of women in the mining industry – much of the data is based on “opinions”.

The “Report on Mining Sector Diagnostic” for the World Bank (Nov 2018) found that gender segregation of data is not required for the legally required documents of 1) Environmental Impact Assessment, and ensuing reports & permits, 2) Social Impact Assessments (SIA) and 3) Social Management and Monitoring Plans (SMMP). A WIME Coaltrans presentation (2019) reported that in 2016 the mining sector comprised 6.7% female and 93.7% male employees.  A World Bank survey of the Indonesian mining industry, based on the 2019 national labour survey, found that women comprise less than 10% of the sector’s total workforce. The Director General of Mineral and Coal 2019 work report does not appear to contain any breakdown of male and female employees at the directorate, nor in the mining sector.

A survey was undertaken by this author to get an appreciation of the numbers of women engaged by responsible mining companies in Indonesia. This survey was based on a review of the 2017 – 2018 annual reports of companies listed on the mining board of the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) and was published in Coal Asia Vol 102 [May-June 2019]. This review found that the overall ratio of commissioners is 188 males to 7 female commissioners (3.7%), and in no company are there more female commissioners to male commissioners. The overall ratio of directors is 187 males to 18 female directors (9.6%), and in one company there are more female directors than male directors. Some 19 of the 47 companies provided details of gender of employees, wherein the total men were 50,844 and women 3,568 making the female percentage of 6.5% of the work force.

A similar review by this author of the 2019 annual reports on the Singapore [SGX], Philippines [PSE] mining stock exchanges was published in the Asian Miner magazine around April- May 2020. The SGX review of 20 mining companies found there were 112 directors with a ratio of 90% male and 10% female, plus 59 executives being 86% male and 14% female. The PSE review of 7 mining companies had 65 directors, of which 77% were male, and 23% female, plus 47 executives of which 66% were male and 34% female.

Evolving Regulations on Gender.

The Government of Indonesia ratified the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and committed to the Beijing Platform of Action, both of which provide guidance on removing barriers preventing women from fully participating in public life. Indonesia also signed the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in 2006. 

The National Gender Mainstreaming Policy (Presidential Decree No 9 of 2000 on Gender Mainstreaming in National Development Planning and Programming) guides the National Long-term Development Plan (RPJPN) 2020 – 2024 which confirms the Indonesian government’s commitment to gender equality, with specific laws in place and aligning the National Development Agenda with 17 Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) #5 being Gender Equality

An ongoing World Bank and Canadian government study on gender mainstreaming in the Indonesian mining industry shows that only a few companies still implement gender blind policies. Gender-sensitive facilities and personal protective equipment are now available in many formal companies.

The global “He-for-She” campaign is one of the UN Women’s programs to implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) development agenda, with the fifth indicator about gender equality. President Ir. H. Joko Widodo stated that women represent half of the actors and beneficiaries of development. Related to this, issues of gender mainstreaming are a main focus in government. A press release (2016) from the Ministry of Empowerment, Women and Child Protection states that “He-For-She is a form of government commitment that positions men to be more concerned about gender equality. In a 2017 UNDP booklet mentioned that the Government of Indonesia commenced redrafting the Law on Gender Equality. [Apparently this redrafting is ongoing].

The IDX requires “Sustainability Reporting” [ 51/POJK.03/2017] for financial matters, but gender is not specifically mentioned as part of sustainable reporting. Many IDX mining companies annual reports include some statistics on gender breakdown. There is little mention of gender in the Indonesian Corporate Governance Manual (1^st edition 2014) published in association with the Indonesian Financial Services Authority [OJK] and International Finance Corporation [IFC]. We only find a reference to gender on page 533, under Best Practice, in reference to SOE’s stakeholders concerns that there should be no employee discrimination based on race, religion, class or gender.

Gender within IDX 2019 miners’ annual reports.

IDX mining companies 2019 annual reports are typically 200 to 500 pages long, and follow variable formats. Some 30 IDX mining companies 2019 annual reports were reviewed using the “search” function. The term “Gender Policy” did not appear in any of the 30 companies. The term “Gender Equality”, or just “Gender” appeared in 22 companies, leaving 8 companies without mentioning “Gender”, thought the terms male / female were not searched for.

The term Gender Equality was quite popular, and typically referred to the objective of employing more women, particularly at the corporate and executive level. The following example of Gender Equality is almost standard text for most companies; “The company provides equal opportunities to all employees to develop their careers and competencies without discrimination of gender, age, ethnicity, religion of race”. A few companies tack on a short statement recognizing human rights, equal pay and such. A few companies mention the basic lines about gender equality, but ore open in stating the company does not have certain policies governing gender equality and employment opportunities”. On an another occasion the companies tack-on the recognition of some gender differences;” However, the majority of the Company’s employees are male, bearing in mind that the type of business the Company engages in is in the mining sector and are located in remote areas.”.

Gender Diversity is often assimilated under Gender Equality. However, it seems that some reports limit the recognition of gender diversity to the board and commissioners. For example: “Diversity in the composition of the board of Commissioners and Directors has diversity in terms of education, gender, work experience and age”.

Fortunately, there are just a few Indonesian companies that seem to take reporting on Gender issues in a more comprehensive manner. For example: PT. Agincourt Resources is proud of their commitment to Gender Diversity. This includes a strong commitment to increasing women participation at all levels and at all fields in the workplace. The Gender Diversity policy was established to address the change in the working environment and the culture of the workforce to ensure the workplace is free of discrimination and enhanced by respect and dignity, and recognition of the benefits gender diversity brings. Training will allow both genders to have equal opportunities for advancement. The aim is to establish a pervasive culture across the organisation where diversity is embraced as the norm. 

Some international mining companies operating in Indonesia’ recent annual reports contained somewhat limited outlook on gender. None of them outlined a clear corporate gender policy, but shifted to the new popular management term of gender equality and diversity.

• Freeport-McMoRan global stated a somewhat nebulous statement “In 2019, we launched a global initiative to further strengthen our focus on diversity and inclusion in the workplace. Our initial focus areas include executive training and various human resource processes, including identifying more diverse applicant pools and measuring trends.”. this was backed up with a few words on employing women and outlining some of their work tasks.
• VALE “Since 2011, the mining company has a Gender Equality program, which aims to increase women’s staff in the company and in mining”. The initiative mentions various actions. The gender program is a result of the signing of statement of support to the Principles of Women’s Empowerment, prepared by UN Women and the United Nations Global Compact. These principles offer guidance on how to empower women in the workplace and in local communities.

Men to adjust to Gender Equality.

“The role of gender in the extractives industries” by Catherine Macdonald (March 2017) published under wider.unu.edu. This paper reviews literature to better understand how gender is understood in the extractives sector, and its changes over time. The paper is not based on primary research, but on interview, references to scholarly papers and such. This section draws heavily from this reference.

 In consideration that women’s participation and gender equity is a precondition for achieving the best development outcomes, some extractives industries companies have committed to integrating gender equality, inclusion, and women’s economic empowerment into aspects of their operations, but others have not. One common theme of the paper refers back to Laplonge 2014, and others, wherein the critical issue is that mining is traditionally a man dominated industry, wherein it is critical for men to adjust to women entering the workforce. Laplonge says that ‘“gender” is not about what men and women are, but needs to be seen as what men and women do. This then enables a discussion of behaviour rather than nature, which can lead to options for cultural change.

The highly male-dominated workplaces, is often designed to favour those who behave in ‘hyper-masculine’ ways. For that reason, research has shown that women in mining ‘often consciously make an effort to not act like girls when on site’ and women managers in mining do not like to associate their success with feminism or women’s rights for fear of alienating their mostly male colleagues. Women geoscientists may have a preference for having more women and greater opportunities for women in their industry, though most of them are opposed to any form of preferential policies for women, in case it undermines the positions that they themselves had achieved.

There is talk about the belief that women will ‘civilize’ the workplace, but that there is no proof either that this works in practice nor that women want this responsibility. We need to start realising that women are not the problem in the mining industry; and ‘woman’ is not the solution. If we really want to see changes in a gender culture of a workplace where most of the employees are men, we need to do some work with these men and with the concept of masculinity.

Women in Mining Groups.

There are some 70- 100 WIM organizations in 50 countries, each with different priorities, capabilities and culture settings. These groups mostly provide a “sharing” platform, from which a gender sensitive movement to grow the industry can arise. These discussion groups take an interest in formal and informal mining, and the social impact on local communities.

On the 15th October 2020, a webinar was hosted by the UNECS/SED for “Women in Mining”.  The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe / Sustainable Energy Division webinar was undertaken in support of a joint program with the World Bank on “coordination to accelerate positive impact for women in mining”. A key observation from this webinar is that some countries (South Africa) are focussed on more basic issues of violence and health in the formal mining sector. Other countries (Australia) have moved to a more mature mining industry working environment, and focus on encouraging greater participation of women to all parts of the mining industry work force. Indonesia was not speaking at this webinar, but clearly would appear to identify more towards a mature mining sector.

A 2019 Indonesian Women In Mining and Energy (WIME) discussion event in Jakarta found that the forefront of gender awareness and action in Indonesia was coming from the major / global mining companies. Various government bodies (National / Local) are barely playing a catch-up role for women in mining.

Conclusion.

Indonesia’s formal mining sector would appear to be well aware of the growing participation of women in mining. The digitizing trend in mining is opening up more spaces that allow for equal opportunities for men and women. Traditional male dominance continues in specific sites, and overall low participation by women in the mining industry is both a national and global situation. There is a need for ongoing activity of regulatory bodies and NGO’s to promote gender diversity and inclusion.

The new mining law 3/2020 places responsibility for formal and small-scale mining under the supervision of the central Mines Department. Improving gender awareness and the “He for She” programs in the small scale and the informal mining sector will be an ongoing challenge.