Household dynamics and the bargaining power of women in artisanal and small-scale mining in sub-Saharan Africa: A Ghanaian case study

With the increasing participation of women in artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) across many sub-Saharan African countries, the ASM sector offers women artisanal miners considerable income that gives them better opportunities at household decision-making. While the existing literature has widely studied intrahousehold dynamics in domains such as agriculture and health, very little is known about the bargaining power of women in ASM and their household dynamics. Through in-depth interviews with 49 women artisanal miners in Prestea-Bondaye mining area in the Prestea-Huni Valley Municipality of Ghana, this paper considers how women's engagement in ASM changes the dynamics within their households and impacts their bargaining power. Findings showed that most women artisanal miners were not in support of pooling income with their husbands with most of them using their income to alter the dynamics of household decision-making concerning food to cook for the family, children's education and family size. Extended family relations as a form of social norm were found to determine women artisanal miners' decision not to pool income with their husbands. The findings, therefore, problematise the unitary model of household decision-making and provide a nuanced analysis of rural household power dynamics in a mining context, which is grossly unexplored. However, various aspects of intrahousehold bargaining models – cooperative, non-cooperative and collective – were found under different circumstances depending on the household needs and artisanal women miners' relations with husbands and their extended family. Findings also showed that women's participation in ASM was changing household dynamics, particularly sexual interactions with their partners and childcare responsibilities. Although women's participation in ASM results in higher levels of bargaining power, the Minerals Commission of Ghana, gender advocacy institutions and other relevant stakeholders must engage in policy discussions to streamline women's activities and find possible ways of dealing with their challenges in the sector.