Women's resilience in the rough: navigating livelihoods in artisanal and small-scale mining

This paper examines women’s roles in artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) and the factors underpinning their continued participation despite persistent economic, social, health, and reproductive challenges. Drawing on ethnographic evidence from ASM communities in southwestern Ghana, the study shows that women’s engagement in the sector is shaped by resilience, agency, and capability, particularly in relation to livelihood survival and the wellbeing and future prospects of their children. The findings demonstrate that prevailing explanations centered on economic survival and household responsibilities are insufficient to capture women’s lived realities in ASM. Instead, the study conceptualizes their experiences as a quadruple burden , reflecting women’s simultaneous exposure to economic precarity, social obligations, health and safety risks, and reproductive responsibilities. The paper introduces the Resilience-Mediated Quadruple Burden Framework, which illustrates the dynamic interactions between the drivers of women’s participation, the layered constraints they face, and the adaptive strategies they employ to sustain their livelihoods. This framework advances scholarship by moving beyond survival narratives and highlighting women’s resilience and adaptive capacities within structurally constrained mining environments.