Why gender equality matters in blasting

Women are steadily entering technical positions and, more importantly, taking up leadership roles across mining, quarrying, and construction. In companies that emphasise hiring women, explosives management has become a space where female experts are making a significant impact, bringing with them fresh perspectives and innovative ideas.

Yet, despite some progress, the divide between men and women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) remains wide and difficult to ignore. By mid-2025, data from Statistics South Africa showed that women were still a very small minority in traditionally male-dominated sectors such as construction and mining, making up only about 3% collectively. Industry research from McKinsey has also shown that companies with the greatest gender diversity are on average 15% more likely to financially outperform their peers.

This is a missed opportunity. The sector is facing rising demands for safety, efficiency, and innovation, and widening the talent pool is essential to meeting those demands. The advantages of encouraging more women to pursue a career in these fields are clear, and companies like Mining and Energy Acuity (MEA) are actively addressing the challenges keeping women out of blasting.

As South Africa’s first explosives management solutions provider founded by women, MEA invests in hiring and training women, giving equal opportunity to all genders. However, while single companies are making a difference, to achieve a truly equal society and encourage gender diversity, an industry-wide cooperative approach is required.

Here are simple steps mining, quarrying, and construction companies can take to attract more women to blasting.  

1.     Provide equal access to technical training and certification opportunities.

To ensure women are not shut out of the industry before they can get started, equal opportunities must be provided to women and men to gain technical qualifications. Companies must ensure that training intake and application processes do not disadvantage women, and that the same support offered to men is extended to women.

Moreover, advanced blasting qualifications and specialised on-the-job training in safety, environmental management, and supervisory skills should be made available on the same basis.

Opening these doors gives women access to the same platform to prove themselves and to progress toward senior roles, instead of being relegated to entry- or assistant-roles. To help make a difference, MEA invests heavily in supporting women through the certification process, ensuring that they are positioned for future advancement.

2.     Review job descriptions and internal promotion criteria to remove wording or requirements that unnecessarily exclude or disadvantage women.

To avoid language in job descriptions and internal promotion requirements that reinforce exclusion, companies must closely consider their wording, and avoid requirements biased toward men. For example, a job description that emphasises physical strength over technical skills may discourage qualified women from applying – a serious concern seeing as blasting today is a discipline where precision, planning, and compliance are the greatest priorities.

Criteria for promotions must also be reviewed. Women are often held back because performance reviews emphasise years of field time without recognising the value of technical analysis, planning, or compliance oversight. This reinforces problems of the past, as men previously favoured for these roles have had more time to build experience.

A more balanced approach is needed that ensures that different contributions are respected and that women are not overlooked for supervisory or management roles. MEA has already adapted its internal criteria to ensure performance is judged on overall capability, not outdated assumptions, and the results have shown that women progress effectively when the barriers are lifted.

3.     Rotate female staff through field, technical, and supervisory blasting tasks to build all-round competence.

Limiting women to specific roles creates bottlenecks and prevents them from gaining the all-round competence needed for leadership. Even today, some women are still kept in administrative or compliance functions, while others are only given repetitive technical assignments.

Rotating female staff through the full cycle of blasting tasks, including fieldwork, technical planning, and supervisory oversight, builds complete professionals who can step into senior positions without gaps in their experience.

This approach also strengthens teams overall, as a blaster who understands every stage of the process is more effective in problem-solving, risk management, and training others.

By treating task rotation as part of professional development, companies actively prepare women for future leadership roles and create stronger, well-rounded blasting teams. MEA actively applies this principle across our explosives management, transport, and storage operations in Africa. This ensures that the women in our ranks rotate through every aspect of blasting, giving them the confidence and experience needed to compete on equal footing.

The blasting sector has always been associated with high risk and heavy responsibility, but it is also one of the few technical disciplines where results are immediate and visible. This matters for women looking to break stereotypes in mining, quarrying, and construction, demonstrating competence in a way that’s difficult to ignore and easy to prove.

By creating more space for women in blasting, the industry will effectively close the gap in representation, while giving women the chance to show their expertise on the ground and make a real difference.