Sexual and gender-based violence in artisanal and small-scale mining in Ghana: Implications for African women's socioeconomic empowerment and well-being

• Informality of artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) creates situations for more cases of violence against women. • Some women in ASM spaces encounter ‘ everyday experiences of sexual harassment ’. • Some women engage in transactional sex for mining roles. • There is physical aggression towards women miners during work. This paper examines the complexities of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) in Africa, drawing from qualitative interviews with 38 women miners and 9 non-miners in Ghana. Our findings revealed five themes; 1) sex for mining jobs/roles and trading space protection, 2) physical aggression towards women miners during work, 3) sexual exploitations and manipulations, 4) everyday sexual harassment at mine sites: body touching and sexist comments, and 5) emotional/psychological abuse – which underlie women's experiences of SGBV in ASM spaces. These findings have implications for women's empowerment in ASM as discussed in the paper.