Female managers in the mining industry : A qualitative study on how work experience and social network affect female career development

Abstract: On average, a person consumes massive amounts of metals and minerals extracted fromthe Swedish mining industry. New technologies and innovations are changing the waythe mining industry operates to become more modern. Traditionally, women havealways been associated with taking care of the home and the children, which influenceswomen's career patterns to be different than men’s. This traditional and historical viewmeans that women are considered less likely to work in the mining industry and cannotbe associated with a strong and decent miner, which is part of the masculinity thatcharacterizes the mining industry. This contributes to women still beingunderrepresented in the workforce, in management positions and as productionmanagers.Previous research shows that there are more and more women in the mining industry,both in Sweden and globally. However, women are still underrepresented in the miningindustry and are affected by the male dominance that contributes to genderdiscrimination. Women experience difficulties in developing their careers due to theglass ceiling phenomenon that occurs simply because of gender discrimination andwhen work experience is disregarded. Work experience is movable betweenorganizations and industries and can be more or less applicable to new environments.Longer tenure, on the other hand, shows that the individual gains a deeperunderstanding of organizational processes providing more career opportunities and thechance to try new roles over time. Moreover, theoretical findings show that individuals’social networks provide exchange of knowledge that is important for performance, thesocial network can also provide references that help in the hiring process.The purpose of our study is to see how work experience and social networks affectfemale managers in the Swedish mining industry to reach managerial roles, and to beused as a tool for females’ career advancement. To answer this, we formulated ourresearch question as:How have work experience and social network affected women in the Swedish miningindustry to reach their managerial roles?The results of this study show that work experience and social networks positivelyaffect women in the mining industry to reach managerial roles. Several years of workexperience in the mining industry allows women to develop a specific knowledge thatfacilitates them to deal with the effects of the glass ceiling (i.e., higher pressure toperform and degradation) which in turn leads to career development. Women's socialnetworks influence them positively as the private social network supports familyobligations to make them able to maintain a work-life balance. The work-based socialnetwork helps women to reach managerial roles by providing references during thehiring process and by acting as inspiring role models. Finally, both the private andwork-based social networks encourage women in the mining industry to reachmanagerial roles by acting as sounding boards.