Gender and Employment in Mine Action by the Numbers: An Update
Publisher: Mines Action Canada
Date: 2023
Topics: Gender, Humanitarian Assistance, Weapons, Waste, and Pollution
How many people work clearing landmines around the world? How many of those humanitarian mine action staff are women? Are there any changes between today and the 2019 survey? These questions are often met with stammering as such statistics are not readily available. In an effort to better understand the state of play in humanitarian mine action employment, Mines Action Canada surveyed 11 non-governmental organizations involved in land release and landmine clearance about their workforce in early 20191and then again in 2023.2 Although the five pillars of humanitarian mine action include victim assistance and advocacy, we chose to focus on survey and clearance, stockpile destruction and risk education as those areas are more likely to be considered “men’s work.” The first goal of this research was to gauge the current level of and factors surrounding women’s employment in the sector globally. In 2019, Mines Action Canada found that two factors impacted women’s employment in mine action: cultural understandings of women’s role in communities and/or the workforce and the program's age.