How would it sit if a man was told he was too intimidating to work in childcare, too rough to care for a newborn, or not creative enough to be an artist simply because of who he is? Most would push back on that straight away. They would say, judge me on what I can do, not on what you assume I can’t.
Throughout history we have attached certain traits to certain jobs and then attached those jobs to certain people. Strength, toughness and resilience have been treated as male. Care, patience and emotional awareness have been treated as female. Those labels have shaped who we expect to see in different roles, who gets encouraged, who gets questioned and who has to prove themselves before they have even started.
Mining is one of many industries built around those assumptions. It was built around men. You can see it in the physical setup of many roles, the amenities on site, and the hours and rosters that have rarely been designed with primary caregivers in mind. For many women, the challenge has never just been getting through the door. It has been walking into workplaces that were never really designed with them in mind.
The Queensland resources sector is making progress. According to QRC’s latest diversity data, women now make up a record 23 per cent of the Queensland resources workforce. They hold 28.1 per cent of executive management roles and 27.4 per cent of senior management roles. Just as importantly, 91 per cent of women in the sector are working in non-administrative roles.
Last month, the industry celebrated women’s achievements at the QRC and WIMARQ Resources Awards for Women, came together for International Women’s Day events, and backed the next step forward through initiatives aimed at building stronger pathways for women in resources. That included the launch of the QRC’s new Women in Resources: Empowering Development (WIRED) pilot, which is designed to upskill and reskill women into advanced site-based roles and create clearer pathways into more senior positions, as well as the 2026 QMEA and WIMARQ GIRLS mentoring program, which connects young women with mentors already working across the resources sector. WIMARQ also continues to support women already in the industry by linking them with leaders who can help shape their career development.
These awards and programs show the sector is putting real effort into creating pathways for women to enter, grow and lead in resources. But recognition on its own is not enough.
Numbers only tell part of the story. They can tell you how many women are in the room. They cannot tell you what it feels like to be interrupted in that room, underestimated in that room, or expected to prove yourself twice in that room. They cannot tell you what it is like to be welcomed into the industry but still treated as though you do not quite belong there.
This year’s International Women’s Day theme, Balance the Scales, gets to the heart of it. Women are still more likely to be harassed at work, still more likely to be paid less, and still more likely to go home and carry the greater share of unpaid work.
At the WIMARQ Bowen Basin International Women’s Day event in Moranbah, WIMARQ Co-Chair Kristy Purdon said equality should not be something we talk about once a year, but a daily practice, in the same way safety is built into our industry.
In mining we do not treat safety as optional. We build it into systems, behaviours and expectations. We talk about it, train for it, measure it and reinforce it. Fair and respectful workplaces need to be approached with that same seriousness.
Achieving that is a shared responsibility. It cannot sit only with women to push through barriers, call out behaviour, mentor the next generation and fix a system they did not create. If the sector is serious about attracting and retaining women and helping them lead, then everyone has a role to play in shaping workplace culture.
That means backing a woman’s capability without waiting for her to prove it twice. It means making sure her ideas are heard in the meeting and credited to her afterwards. It means refusing to laugh off the joke, ignore the comment or excuse behaviour because “that’s just how he is”. Real change is not built on big statements. It shows up in everyday behaviour.
And if you think behaviour is not an issue, ask the women in your life. Your mother, sister, wife, daughter. Have they ever had a man say something inappropriate at work? Been talked over in a meeting? Had an idea ignored, only for it to be praised when repeated by a man? Felt unsafe because of a man’s behaviour, or changed the way they work, speak or carry themselves because of it? For far too many women, the answer will be yes.
On the following pages, you will read about this year’s award winners and why putting these women forward matters. Recognition does important work. It makes achievement visible. It shows women already in the sector that their contribution matters. It shows girls and young women what is possible.
Over the 20 years since these awards began, it is easy to see that the women recognised were not just building careers, they were breaking barriers and the industry has changed because of it. Some were the first woman on site. Some were the first to go underground. Some walked into workplaces where there were no facilities, no support systems and often no other women. Some had to deal with outdated attitudes, low expectations or the assumption they were only there to fill a quota. All of them had to prove themselves over and over again in ways the men around them simply did not.
That history matters. Not because women want special treatment, but because it shows that the barriers were never really about capability in the first place. They were about culture, assumptions and workplaces built around the idea that these jobs belonged to men.
Balancing the scales is not about giving women an advantage. It is about removing the assumptions and barriers that have limited women in some roles and men in others. That is what real equality looks like, and it is something we can only achieve when we work together.
