As Women’s Month 2025 unfolds, the Minerals Council Women in Mining (WiM) Newsletter (2025, Edition 2) marks the occasion with the theme: “For All Women and Girls: Equality. Rights. Empowerment: Unlocking Equal Rights, Power, and Opportunities to Accelerate Action.”
This theme, aligned with the United Nations’ 2025 International Women’s Day, “underscores the need to accelerate action towards achieving a more equitable society.” The newsletter highlights that while transformation is underway globally, “change is taking place at a sluggish rate.”
The World Economic Forum has noted a lack of “meaningful and widespread progress” in closing the gender gap across key indicators in its Gender Gap Index. At the current rate, it will take 137 years to close the gap globally.
“This is very sobering, as 2025 marks 30 years since the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995), where global leaders committed to transforming society through the enactment of laws and policies that catalyse equitable job creation, equal economic and political participation, fostering peace, climate justice, and ending violence against women,” the newsletter states.
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The Minerals Council notes that “progress has been made to achieve a more transformed industry,” with women’s representation among member mines increasing by approximately 1% per year, reaching an average of 16% to 19% in 2024.
This year’s theme calls for deliberate action to unlock equal rights, power, and opportunities—tapping into the full potential of human resources for sustainable development and inclusive growth.
Despite these gains, the Council acknowledges that “there is still a need for targeted action to advance women’s representation in the sector.” This includes focused efforts in leadership development, workplace safety, health, education, and support services.
The Council reinforces a collective responsibility: “Everyone has a role to play in advancing gender equality and women’s rights, and in unlocking equal rights, power, and opportunities.”
