De Beers Canada is looking to make progress.
Not in the mines necessarily, but rather in this particular instance, among their staff.
“People have this belief that mining is just, ‘going into holes with a pickaxe and coming out covered in coal'”
Women in De Beers make up roughly 20% of their total staff.
De Beers is now partnering with UN Women to change that.
A luncheon was held on Friday for female Yellowknife and Behchoko high students.
A representative for De Beers spoke about the possibilities for women to get into the mining business.
“People have this belief that mining is just, ‘going into holes with a pickaxe and coming out covered in coal’,” she said. “Clearly, there’s more than just the mining side of it. We want women here to come away knowing there are opportunities in Engineering, or Science, or Mathematics with our company.”
De Beers will be giving scholarships to go to the University of Waterloo in Ontario. The scholarships will be for STEM programs at the University.
The company’s target is to raise their female employee numbers by 2020.
