This article examines how women’s increased employment in the stereotypically masculine domain of large-scale underground mining affect gender stereotypes and cultural expectations in the Zambian Copperbelt. Based on three years of ethnographic research under and above the ground, it responds to three key questions: How are women working in mining coping with their male colleagues and the underground environment? How do women miners interact with their male partners at home? What does it tell us about broader gender dynamics in the Zambian mining sector? It also shows that women’s increased access to resources and valorised positions in mining has contributed to changing gender inequalities not only in mining but also in miners’ families. Men are no longer ashamed of having working wives as they were in the period from the 1950s to the 1970s. For these families, economic security is a more important determinant of a man’s or a woman’s position than gender difference.

中文翻译：

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破坏性别：赞比亚地下矿山岩壁上的女矿工

本文探讨了在大型地下采矿的定型男性化领域中妇女的就业增加如何影响赞比亚铜带中的性别定型观念和文化期望。基于对地下和地面以上三年的人种学研究，它回答了三个关键问题：妇女在采矿业中如何与男同事和地下环境打交道？女矿工在家里如何与男性伴侣互动？它告诉我们有关赞比亚采矿业更广泛的性别动态的信息？它还表明，妇女在采矿业获得资源的机会越来越多，地位更高，这不仅改变了采矿业，而且还改变了矿工家庭中的性别不平等。男人不再像1950年代到1970年代那样对有工作的妻子感到羞耻。