Increasing the involvement of women in the South Australian resources sector: the business imperative: discussion paper, February 2012

The Resources and Engineering Skills Alliance (RESA) commissioned this discussion paper to frame the business case for why it is in the interests of the industry in South Australia to include women’s workforce participation as one of its strategic development priorities and to form the informational building block upon which RESA will look to build a response strategy. The paper is aimed at a broad audience of industry, policy makers, and community. Drawing on public domain data, the authors present a comparative cross-state review of female employment in the Australian resources sector, summarise historical trends, and review current and projected demand for new workers. They then frame the case for increasing women’s participation around four key business imperatives: to be competitive; to be adaptive; to be aligned; and to be sustainable. The paper also highlights examples of initiatives that have had positive outcomes for female employment and consider which of these may provide models suitable for adaptation to the South Australian context.

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