Do women have a right to mine?

This article argues that the rights-based approach, as applied in the context of mining, is based on a limited interpretation of women; women are construed as being located outside of the mining industry and as victims of patriarchal oppression. Such an incomplete focus on gender is contrary to a feminist perspective that is necessarily holistic as well as eclectic in its treatment of women's issues. To substantiate the argument, this article offers examples of action research from coal-mining contexts in Indonesia and eastern India to show that the rights-based approach, when conceived partially, alienates the figure of the woman who labours as an economic citizen within the mining industry, usually at the very bottom of its structural hierarchy, and who is usually no less subjugated.