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ABSTRACTBased on research conducted from October 2015 through June 2018, this paper highlights the social and economic implications of licensing artisanal mining on women’s land rights in Uganda. It also brings to the fore how artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) governance is affecting women’s participation in the sector. It examines how women as spouses and as entrepreneurs in the ASM sector are affected by the prevailing local governance structures and land tenure arrangements; the arrangements in place to ensure that female spouses get a share of compensation and other long-term benefits from ASM; and the ramifications of the lacuna between policy and enforcement on spouses and on women engaged in the ASM sector. The results show that the rights of women in the ASM sector are subjugated to social cultural practices, contradictory laws regarding women’s land rights, poor law enforcement, and weak structures for ASM governance.

ABSTRACTUsing data collected from a survey administered at seven mine sites in Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Rwanda, this paper examines differences in the livelihoods and economic well-being of women and men involved in artisanal and small-scale mining. To provide a deeper context, the results from the survey are combined with findings from other methodological approaches. The results provide evidence that men have more experience in the mining sector and that men earn more both at mine sites and at activities not conducted at mine sites. The evidence also highlights the need for research on the artisanal mining sector to be gender sensitive, to yield policies that improve the economic well-being of all those reliant on the sector.

•Women’s double burden constrains their mining work, limiting access to mining knowledge, training, and networks.•Women were mostly excluded as license holders and decision-makers in miners' cooperatives and committees in all study sites.•Women miners are unlikely to benefit from formalization focused on licenses and cooperatives/associations.•Formalization interventions inattentive to gender inequality are likely to entrench women’s exclusion from mining roles and bodies.