International Journal of Sociology and Anthropology Vol. 4(10) pp. 285-295, December, 2012 Available online at http://www.academicjournals.org/IJSA DOI: 10.5897/IJSA11.063 ISSN 2006- 988x ©2012 Academic Journals Full Length Research Paper Gender and labour force inequality in small-scale gold mining in Ghana Romanus D. Dinye 1* and Michael O. Erdiaw-Kwasie 2 1 Centre for Settlements Studies, College of Architecture and Planning, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana. 2 Department of Planning, College of Architecture and Planning, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana. Accepted 4 April, 2012 Gender inequality is an inevitable concomitant of the innate poverty in humanity, a situation to which the Ghanaian society is no exception. This paper explores the underlying elements of gender inequality pertinent to women in the small-scale gold mining sector in Ghana drawing inference from a case study of the Tarkwa-Nsuaem municipal assembly area in the western Region. The contribution of women to the small-scale gold mining sector and through that poverty reduction is immense, notwithstanding a number of factors that alongside militate against their well being. The drawbacks have to do with the unregulated, dangerous and insecure conditions of the small-scale gold mining operators that for the most part, tend be discriminative against women. These are in areas of the health, income and capacity building package benefits to their labour force. The policy implication is the need for government to institute gender-sensitive workplace regulatory policies and programmes to be adhered to in the small- scale mining sector in the country. It should be the responsibility of the municipal and all the relevant regulatory authorities to ensure that the designated policies as well as the attendant rules and regulations are enforced. Key words: Small-scale mining, gold miners, women, poverty. INTRODUCTION Small-scale gold mining in almost wherever it exist is characterized by a lack of long-term mine planning and use of rudimentary techniques (Hinton et al., 2003). People, inclusive of women, involved in the activity operate under dangerous, labour-intensive, highly dis- organized and insecure conditions. However, small-scale gold mining is of much develop- ment importance in many developing countries, parti- cularly in regions where economic alternatives are critically limited. Globally, the number of small-scale gold miners currently stands around thirteen million in 55 *Corresponding author. E- mail: rdinye2004@yahoo.co.uk. Tel: 0541349201. countries, which is roughly equivalent to the workforce of large-scale mining (International Labour Organization (ILO), 1999). As such an estimated eighty to one hundred million people worldwide are directly and indirectly dependent on this activity for their livelihood. Small-scale gold mining plays a very remarkable role towards poverty reduction in most countries especially on the African continent. The sector is prolific in the provision of employment for a large proportion of the unemployed populace. In this respect, participants driven by the allure of riches in small-scale gold mining, consider the sector as an opportunity to relieve the strains of poverty. Çagatay (2001) describes poverty to include lack of assets, dignity, autonomy and time in addition to income poverty. In most Ghanaian small scale gold mining communities, the mining activity has really