In the context of International Women’s Day, Pamela Antonioli, general manager of the Peruvian Mining Innovation Hub, highlighted the role of technology, which today enables us to remotely operate machinery and equipment. This reduces the risks in the workplace and also facilitates women’s access to this type of activities.

“More than being about the pay gap, it is about the access to a kind of work that, for a long time, required physical effort. This was the main reason limiting women. But here I would like to highlight the role of technology, which is here to stay and, in fields like mining, is getting workers out of environments that can pose certain risks. Technology is a great facilitator for women to have more access to these kinds of jobs,” she said in an interview with La República newspaper.

Likewise, Betty Canchari, instructor of the School for Heavy Machinery Operators at TECSUP, declared to La República that the rate of women’s labor force participation in machinery operation was 48,9% in 2020, a figure that is growing little by little. And, in terms of gender pay gap, there is no gap in this field.

“When it comes to heavy machinery, we are all measured by the same yardstick. There are no pay gaps; people do not make less money because they are women or more money because they are men. We get paid the same because we are treated equally,” claimed Canchari.

METS Studies

On the other hand, Antonioli mentioned that, despite our country’s entrepreneurial spirit, oftentimes it is the need for survival that leads to the creation of a startup, and we must find a way to create startups based on knowledge and technology, and with a differential advantage.

“We still need to make great progress so that more women can pursue METS studies (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) and, with that knowledge, develop solutions that could be much more impactful,” said the general manager of the Peruvian Mining Innovation Hub.

In that sense, she underscored that the mining sector is creating spaces to give people the  chance to present innovative solutions. An example of this is PERUMIN Hub, a program developed by the Peruvian Mining Innovation Hub, in partnership with the Peruvian Institute of Mining Engineers.

“The mining sector’s ecosystem over the last few years has been much more open to listening to startups and technological suppliers, so there is a chance for women to present value-added solutions. And PERUMIN Hub offers that chance to present solutions, whether they are yet to be validated in the field or already successful. We try to provide people with these spaces where they can submit their ideas to us, and then develop them in order to contribute to the sector,” explained Antonioli.