Gold mining and gender: (Re)questioning the gendered division of labor on the Tourela gold-panning site (Mali)

Gold miners are flocking to Mali’s goldfields. Many of them are young men, but there are women too. Although the tasks they perform are often menial or peripheral, the income they earn can be substantial. This gives women the opportunity to renegotiate their place in a highly patriarchal society, and to refuse the “maid” jobs to which they were generally confined.