Structuring gender relations among coal mine workers

Coal mining is one of Australia’s most male-dominated yet highly regulated industries. Using case studies and several data sources, mostly the Australian Coal and Energy Survey (ACES), we find pay is highly regulated, so the internal gender gap is very small: women coal mine workers receive similar pay to men for equal work. However, normative forces strongly influence advancement and access to equal work. Barriers manifest through the domestic–work interface, access to training, harassment, and high visibility. Differential behavioral effects are experienced regarding assimilation, emotion work, and identity work. Unions, their delegates, and activist women workers are among critical actors whose agency shapes industry norms and regulation. Where regulation content demands equality but male culture resists, the more rules dominate norms, the relatively better things are for women.