Gender and labour force inequality in small-scale gold mining in Ghana

Gender inequality is an inevitable concomitant of the innate poverty in humanity, a situation to which the Ghanaian society is no exception. This paper explores the underlying elements of gender inequality pertinent to women in the small-scale gold mining sector in Ghana drawing inference from a case study of the Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipal Assembly Area in the Western Region. The contribution of women to the smallscale gold mining sector and through that poverty reduction and national development is immense, notwithstanding a number of factors that alongside militate against their well being. The drawbacks have to do with the unregulated, dangerous and insecure conditions of the small-scale gold mining operators which, for the most part, are discriminative against women. These are in areas of the health, income and capacity building package benefits given to their labour force. The policy implication is the need for government to institute gender-sensitive workplace regulatory policies and programmes not only to be adhered to in all sectors of the economy including the small-scale mining sector. Necessarily, it is the responsibility of the local and all the other relevant regulatory authorities to ensure that the designated policies as well as the attendant rules and regulations are enforced.