The Center for the Development of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, CEDENNA, joined four ministries to strengthen women’s work in Chilean mining and contribute from science to the development of this important sector, by signing a letter of commitment during the annual closing ceremony of the National Women and Mining Roundtable.
The agreement was signed by the ministries of Mining, Education, Women and Gender Equity, and Labor and Social Security, as well as CEDENNA. It represents an inter-ministerial commitment to strengthen women’s participation in the different areas of the mining ecosystem, including women in STEM.
The Minister of Mining, Marcela Hernando, said that “to the work being carried out with the Ministry of Women and Gender Equity and also with the Ministry of Labor, we have decided to add Education, which we consider a tremendous addition because the National Roundtable is advancing along thematic axes and one of them points to this area, precisely to support training from high school with courses for young people who later join mining companies, both public and private.”
The Dr. Dora Altbir, director of CEDENNA, thanked the opportunity to take part in this agreement and in the Mining Roundtable, which “is tremendously important for us. I work at a nanoscience and nanotechnology center, part of what are called the hard sciences, which share with mining the fact that women are quite underrepresented in these areas.”
“It is a pleasure and an honor for us to be invited, first to listen, because I am sure there are many strategies from the mining world that we can learn about and learn a great deal from. We will undoubtedly learn a lot from the progress made at the roundtable and we trust we can contribute from our experience.”
The Minister of Education, Marco Antonio Ávila, said this initiative “is part of President Gabriel Boric’s call for inter-ministerial coordination, and what better way to do it than through an agenda that puts gender equity and equality first, especially when we consider that the mining world is highly male-dominated and it is important to have more women in this field.”
The Undersecretary for Women and Gender Equity, Luz Vidal, celebrated the creation of the roundtables, saying that “we want gender mainstreaming to be effective. The Ministry of Mining is doing so, seeing and incorporating more ministries so that we can have safety, inclusion and justice in all the areas in which women can take part.”
Work of the committees
The Education committee’s defined goals are to support women’s participation in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) programs and in the mining sector; to achieve, in the medium term, vocational support, teacher mentoring and links with the productive sector; and to explore the projected demand for labor and specialties in the industry and correlate them with training programs.
The committee on preventing workplace and sexual harassment and violence (MALS), within the framework of ILO Convention 190, will work on a manual in clear and friendly language that will serve as input for the rest of the industry.
The diversity and inclusion committee aims to produce a manual of recommendations and a repository of industry best practices to advance in these areas.
Finally, the indicators and measurement committee aims to ensure the continuity of the National Roundtable and monitor progress, coordinating commitments, creating a set of indicators and working to incorporate the country’s medium and small-scale mining.
