Entry Details

About the Entry

Category: 
All Content > Data Journalism > Mid Atlantic

Title of entry: 
Women in Metals and Mining

Issue or Publication date:
May 23, 2023; July 17, 2023

Publication name: 
S&P Global Market Intelligence

Publishing/parent company: 
S&P Global Inc.

View Website home page:
https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/

Description of the enterprising work that went into this entry and its significance or impact on readers:

The metals and mining team at S&P Global Commodity Insights provides in-depth coverage of the mining industry, including supply and demand for a variety of metals, market changes, and political and regulatory influences.
The mining industry has a reputation as a men’s club that is well earned. Using an algorithm developed in-house by Commodity Insights, reporter Taylor Kuykendall and data journalist Anna Duquiatan analyzed the gender breakdown of the boardrooms and C-suites of more than 2,000 publicly traded mining companies. Their analysis revealed that while women have made modest gains, they remain in the minority of leadership in the industry, representing just 14% of executives and 12.1% of C-suite level leadership.
The charts Kuykendall and Duquiatan developed present a damning picture of an industry that seems to be struggling to open its top ranks of leadership to women.
However, differences in experiences, leadership styles and approaches to problem-solving and decision-making may translate into positives for mining companies, from improved safety outcomes to higher profitability. There is evidence of benefits of hiring and promoting more diverse employees, including better financial results at companies with women in managerial positions, greater environmental performance at companies with gender-diverse boards, and improved safety outcomes under women leaders.
Championing the cause for women in mining are companies in Africa, where more women have reached the leadership ranks. Our data show that among companies in Africa, admittedly a smaller number, women hold 32.0% of the executive roles, 23.9% of the C-suite roles and 26.5% of the boardroom positions.
There are a variety of reasons for this, including legislation and quotas. For example, in South Africa, companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange must have policies on promoting diversity and report on those policies annually. Zambia introduced laws to improve gender equality and adopted several international standards to prevent discrimination.
Despite the increase in women leaders in the mining sector in Africa, the absolute numbers still need to be higher. "Mindsets need to be changed, old ways of thinking are no longer valid, and the cliché of the boys club is a reality that must be acknowledged so that it can be changed," said Raksha Naidoo, chairperson of Women in Mining South Africa. "Opportunities are not always given for the right reasons, and company cultures need to be changed at all levels of the organization for a difference to be seen."

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https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/latest-news-headlines/women-in-metals-mining-make-modest-gains-in-leadership-roles-75759082
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https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/latest-news-headlines/african-mining-companies-outpace-global-peers-on-women-in-leadership-76517377