At the beginning of 2022, Direct employment in the Peruvian mining subsector, according to the Ministry of Energy and Mines (Minem), added a total of 233,910 workers, representing a 14.7% growth compared to the personnel reported in the same month of the previous year, which was 203,852 workers. But the Minem does not mention disaggregated data on diversity, according to Revista Energiminas.
It should be mentioned that the employment figure registered in January 2022 was 2.9% higher than the annual average for 2021 (227,407 workers). In summary, mining employment reflected levels higher than those reached in the first months of last year.
What is known in the industry is that, Of every one hundred jobs in formal mining in Peru, six are occupied by women. The figure is alarming when compared to countries like Australia and Canada or Chile, countries in which around 20% of the mining workforce is female.
Comparisons are not always welcome, but on many occasions they are necessary and even unavoidable. While in Chile, the employment of women in mining has gone from 11.4% in 2018 to 26.8% in 2021, in our country remains the same as a decade ago. The female presence in the mining sector in Peru is 6%, a figure that has not changed for ten years, warned Graciela Arrieta, president of Women in Mining.
One of the problems is that women in Peru study fewer careers linked to the sector, says Arrieta. “In Latin America, and particularly in Peru, only 30% of women choose higher careers linked to science and technology, compared to 70% of men. This is not a mining problem, it is an entire country problem”, she clarified.
But the problem has not been swept under the rug by the Peruvian mining industry either. Moreover, first they admit it and, second, they have begun to propose mechanisms and programs to increase the presence of women in their operations and, more importantly, in key positions.
The first thing that should be prioritized, as in everything, is that the applicant meets the requirements to hold the position, the search takes time. “What currently prevails to be taken into account in a company are technical knowledge and soft skills, but not gender”, warned Arrieta.
Source: Larepublica
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