Equity core to IDWIM 2023

The worldwide recognition of diversity, equity and inclusion is entering its second year with a growing force.

By Donna Schmidt

After a successful launch in 2022, The International Day of Women in Mining (IDWIM) is returning in June with the theme “Equity in mining is everyone’s responsibility.”

IDWIM, marked on June 15, is a global celebration of the achievements for the inclusion of all women, and those who identify as women, to date as well as a change to highlight the challenges that still lay ahead. 

The keystone of the day of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) is a worldwide online event on the day to convene WIM organizations, companies, associations and supported via a two-hour meeting. More on the logistics for each time zone is available at the website of the event’s sponsor, International Women in Mining, at internationalwim.org.

“IDWIM 2023 is focused on making the mining industry aware about effective and long-lasting gender inclusion as the greatest asset the industry has for long-term sustainability,” the organizers said. “We’d like to promote greater collaboration and collective action among all stakeholders in the mine value chain because equity in mining is everyone’s responsibility.”

IWiM is also celebrating the launch of the International Women in Resources Mentoring Programme (IWRMP) 2023, which has matched 108 mentees from 28 countries with mentors across the globe. 

“A great outcome this year was that we successfully integrated more ethnic diversity into the mentor pool,” IWiM said, noting the program officially begins on April 18 in Santiago, Chile with in-person and online training sessions for both mentors and mentees and a networking cocktail event. 

Finally, IDWIM organizers recently confirmed the release of a global report on women’s participation in large-scale mining. The report is the result of a great collaboration between IGF Mining, the International Labour Organization, UNDP EGP, IWiM, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), MinSus and the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency. 

“Rapid technological advances, increasing calls for sustainability, and the low-carbon energy transition are transforming large-scale mining across the globe. The lack of high-quality, gender-disaggregated employment data does not provide decision-makers with the necessary resources to effectively support a more equal and inclusive mining workforce,” the group said.

“The Women and the Mine of the Future Global Report looks at 12 countries to uncover the gender-disaggregated employment profile for large-scale mining, focusing on women and their occupations in the sector. The report begins with a cross-country analysis that compares the data against commonly held assumptions and key trends in the sector.”

The report was informed by a series of in-depth country reports that provided in-depth analysis of policies and data related to employment, education levels, age, skills, gender pay gap, and other critical profiles of women and men in the large-scale mining sector. It is the final outcome of the first phase of the Women and the Mine of the Future project. 

The 107-page report can be downloaded and read in its entirety here.

To register for this year’s IDWIM event – online reservations are limited to 1,000 – visit.

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