So you think you're tough? Getting serious about gender in mining

The mining industry has been tackling the issue of gender for almost 25 years. But very little has changed.
So you think you're tough: Getting serious about gender in mining brings together many of Dean Laplonge's ideas and consulting experiences on gender and mining. In this book, he criticises the mining industry's obsession with "women in mining", and bemoans the lack of attention that is paid in this industry to broader research on gender.
Drawing on ideas from the fields of gender studies and cultural studies, Dean creates a new vision for gender in the mining industry which promises to break through the current impasse. Out is the old view of gender which relies on a distinct separation of men from women. And in comes a new view of gender which focuses on multiple and diverse ways of acting out as men and women. The shift appears simple, as we move from being genders to doing genders. But the application in the mining industry is proving to be difficult, not least because it demands we think about gender in terms of men and masculinities.
This book provides practical ways for mining companies to start introducing this new vision of gender into their workplaces. By focusing on the relationships between gender and safety, and gender and leadership, Dean argues we can begin to understand how mining is already gendered. And we can then finally start to develop real gender diversity on mine sites.