Globalization and women’s work in the mine pits in east Kalimantan, Indonesia

This chapter examines such a context: a large coal mining operation located in the midst of equatorial forests in Sangatta, East Kalimantan, Indonesia. The process of global connectivity in the contemporary world is leading to far-reaching changes in both mining and women’s work. Globalization is about ‘making things global’; the phenomenon of ‘creating languages, services and products that apply not just to an individual neighbourhood or city or country, but to the whole world’. The chapter shows that the globalized mine pits as gendered workplaces where the local concepts of gender roles conflict with imported values and conform or change in myriad ways. Discrimination against women can take place outside of the labour market such as in unequal access to formal education and skills training, restricting their employment opportunities. Large scale mining is a globalized industry spreading its tentacles into the remote parts of the developing countries.