International Women’s Day 2021 at Anglo American

Every March, we take a day to celebrate and recognise the achievements of women around the world, past and present, and to acknowledge the work there is left to do in the fight for gender equality. This year, the official hashtag for International Women’s Day is #ChooseToChallenge, a fitting theme for us here at Anglo American, as we work to redress the lack of gender parity in the mining industry.

Currently, women account for approximately 16% of the mining industry – that is something that we want to change. This IWD, we chose to speak to some of the exceptional women helping to shape Anglo American in order to challenge the perception of what a miner really is and to encourage other women to consider pursuing an exciting, worthwhile new career.

Redressing the Balance

So, what does a miner look like? From the videos above you can see that there is no one definition. Mining encompasses so many disciplines and professions and can only improve with the inclusion of different perspectives and skill sets

For all the decades I’ve been in engineering, there’s still not that many women coming through and I think that’s a shame. I think women are missing out on a really exciting career.

Jen Williams Interface Manager at the Woodsmith Project in the UK

Our goal at Anglo American is to create an inclusive workplace where every colleague can bring their authentic self to work. In our interviews with the brilliant women working with us today, many talked about the challenges they have encountered as women and what they wished they had known earlier in their careers. “I wish someone had told me when I started my career to be more confident about what I bring to the table,” says Nolitha Fakude, Group Director - South Africa, “And also understand that I can add value and that my unique contributions are actually appreciated.”

“What has been the biggest challenge as a woman in this industry?” asks Paulina Jaramillo, Head of Asset Strategy and Reliability for our Copper business. “I think being treated as an equal, recognition that you are not in the position you are in because the company is trying to reach a certain quota of women but that you recognise and value your knowledge, capabilities and experience.”

We know that there is work to be done to encourage women to join the mining community – our aim is 33% female representation by 2023 at all management levels, in every business unit and Group function.

We have made progress on this front; in 2020, we began monitoring our talent pools by gender to ensure we are identifying talented women in our pipeline. We have set a similar target for 33% of our Group Management Committee and those reporting to the committee to be women by 2023.

In order for us to succeed further, we are ensuring our people feel fully supported throughout their career with us. “The biggest challenge for me was when I had children and was away from work for extended periods of time,” says Anushika Bhana, from the Commercial Strategy Team in Singapore. “But I was lucky enough to have great support from Anglo American. They kept me connected and made my transition back into the workplace seamless.” This support now includes a robust policy framework, colleague networks, apprenticeships, a global mentoring programme and a zero-tolerance approach to bullying, harassment and victimisation.

Living With Dignity

At Anglo American, we believe that every person who works for us is entitled to respect and fair treatment as an absolute minimum. We have called this approach Living With Dignity. It is designed to combat discrimination and harassment of any kind in the workplace, but specifically that based on gender.

A huge part of this has been to start a conversation about the reality of gender-based violence (GBV), especially since the advent of Covid-19. Our efforts actually began well before the start of the pandemic, with measures introduced to address GBV at work,

homes, schools and mining communities such as partnering with International Alert and Business Fights Poverty. However, it became clear that Covid-19 continues to increase the incidence of domestic violence globally, especially in countries like South Africa which already have a high GBV incident rate and where the lockdowns have been among the most stringent in the world.

A multi-pronged approach has been implemented, which includes ensuring victims access to essential support, providing funding to shelters, closely monitoring our workplaces for signs of abuse, revisiting and bolstering sexual harassment policies and making sure the conversation around GBV is not taboo. We have already seen an increase in people coming forward and discussing the issue, indicating an encouraging shift in perception and behaviour.

Looking to the Future

The climate is changing, and we are proud to be part of that change by employing dynamic, talented and powerful women from all over the world. Our 2021 IWD campaign has shown just how much they bring to the table and we hope their words serve as inspiration to a new generation of miners. Their advice?

“Challenge change, be creative in your problem solving, but most importantly, enjoy what you do and acknowledge the people you are privileged to do it with.” - Stephanie Liggins, Principal Scientist, Element Six
“Don’t try and fit someone else’s version of what success is. You decide what that looks like and you go and achieve it.” - Zaheera Soomar, Head of Education
“You will have to learn to put yourself forward. You will also need to be bold, brave and courageous and be your authentic self.” - Salima Shariff, Head of Talent Acquisition
“Your health and your family should always be your priority. Never ever compromise or sacrifice either of those.” - Froydis Cameron, Group Head of International and Government Relations

“At Anglo American, we can all choose to challenge,” says Liz Douglas, Head of Inclusion & Diversity (I&D). “We can choose to call out all forms of bullying, harassment and victimisation by Standing up for Everyone. We can choose to seek out and celebrate women's achievements and create an environment where everyone can bring their full selves to work.”

We are living by these words in our actions as an organisation and will continue to strive for equality and safety in our operations around the globe.

For our video campaign, we asked our interviewees to sum up their experience with Anglo American and their thoughts about the future. As Ashina Buddu, Head of Digital, Technology Development, put it: “Watch this space.”