It is clear from the above literature that it is possible for women in the mining sector to achieve empowerment through affirmative action and employment equity, but they find it difficult to get the respect that males deserve; it can be inferred that most participants are unaware of the power conferred by these policies. For example, Participant A stated, “Affirmative action and employment equity hey, it affects my life at work, but you can distinguish between them, it's up to you. But as I later found out, the longer I work in the mining industry, the more I realize that it's not possible to, how can I put it, please everyone. You understand? Sometimes male workers think you are only here because of politics. “Say no to plagiarism. Get a custom essay on “Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay And Participant B mentioned, “The balance you try to maintain is difficult, between being empowered and simply do what you have to and nothing more, because you can never tell when you will be promoted or will be listened to by others. And Participant C also said, “You know, in general I can say from my experience in the mining industry that with the type of work we do there's no real interaction between you and the male workers and you're treated differently…. " and "I try to a large extent not to let male workers influence me, but because of our type of work and the fact that we sometimes have to work with heavy tools, you can't always prevent it." According to Dikane (2006 ) empowerment in the workplace can be defined as giving employees a certain degree of autonomy and responsibility for decision making in their daily work and employees are empowered to step up, make their own decisions and pave their own path to success, creating a better workplace culture. Most employees in the mining sector work with heavy equipment and tools and it is clear from the literature that this plays a key role in empowering female employees with or without affirmative action and employment equity policies. It is clear from the data that participants experience working with heavy equipment differently and have different ways of handling it. Some participants express how Affirmative Action and Employment Equity influence their work as workers in a predominantly male industry, Participant A stated: “Yes, the work is difficult sometimes, I have been working as a craftsman for 20 years now, the Most of the time I still feel like I only got the job because of policies that women have to be appointed, because at work I'm still treated like a woman and men still think I can't do the job they can do them. Even with policies, males get promoted first.” However, more recent studies have shown that each individual experiences the influence of Affirmative Action and Equity Employment separately and states that, when conceived correctly, it is directly linked to satisfaction. It is clear that affirmative action and employment equity are not always used well in the mining industry and this can affect employee satisfaction. From the above literature it is clear that some participants find it difficult to continue to see if affirmative action and employment equity Equity gives them power in the workplace. Some are unsure about their place in the workplace when competing with male workers and whether affirmative action and employment equity truly play a role in empowering them. An example of what a participant.