It is not easy for Henny Dwi Purnamasari, a resident of Palembang, South Sumatra, to work in the mining sector, given that it is a heavily male-dominated industry. Every day, the 46-year-old leads the operation of a tailing storage facility at a gold mine in South Tapanuli, North Sumatra.

Henny is responsible for ensuring the quality of the mine’s clay cramming processes, which is conducted in a soil laboratory, is in compliance with international standards and Indonesian National Standards (SNI).

Henny conceded that managing a tailing storage facility is a male-dominated occupation, but she said that it is the spirit of Kartini, Indonesia’s national heroine for female empowerment, that has encouraged to say in the industry.

“Honestly, as a woman, I feel challenged to work in the mining sector, especially because of its long working hours and tough work environment,” she told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

The civil engineer said she had experienced no barriers working and sharing knowledge with her colleagues, who are mostly men, at the Martabe gold mine, where she has been working for five years.

Martabe is one of the coal and mineral mining companies in Sumatra that has made a commitment to increase female participation in the workforce.

“Each mining company holds a responsibility to increase the participation of female workers and realize gender diversity in the workforce,” said Sri Raharjo, director of the Energy and Mineral Resources

He said it was important for miners to pay attention to efforts toward achieving gender diversity in the industry.

“Female workers’ potential could be as high as male workers’,” Raharjo said.

He was speaking during the 4th Sumatra Miner Conference in Palembang, South Sumatra, on March 22. Dozens of mineral and coal mining companies from across Sumatra attended the event themed “Game Changer in Sumatra Mining”.

In the conference, the miners conveyed their commitments to increase the participation of female workers in the workforce in the mining industry. They also committed to conserving the environment.

Agincourt Resources, a company that manages the Martabe gold mine, has made a commitment to increasing the participation of female workers in all of its work levels, with president director Tim Duffy saying that women play a key role in helping the company achieve its targets.

“Studies in countries across the world have shown unavoidable facts on a strong correlation between the success of a company and gender diversity. This issue has been widely accepted in behavior theories and practices of organizations,” Duffy told the Post on the sidelines of the Sumatra Miner Conference.

Only around 18 percent of the total 761 workers at Matabe are female.

The company is targeting to increase that figure to 25 percent by 2019, with 40 percent of these female workers holding superintendent and managerial-level positions, Duffy said.

“We will increase the number of female workers in our company through our recruitment and human resource development initiatives,” he added.

Duffy asserted that it was important to strengthen a work culture and environment that promote respect and dignity among all workers. It would also be crucial for a company to become a work place that was free from discrimination, and could encouraged openness and confidence of its workers, he added.

To that end, Duffy said, concrete efforts needed to be conducted to integrate gender diversity principles in various operational policies, including in recruitment, training and wage systems, and to prevent sexual harassment in work places. (ebf)

Source:
courtesy of THE JAKARTA POST

by Apriadi Gunawan

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