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The Pipeline has looked at how many women serve on companies' executive committees, in profit and loss roles on those committees, and as executive directors.
As a group, miners were behind all other FTSE 350 industries, with five of the 14 FTSE 350-listed companies lacking a single woman at executive level.
"This sector only has 10% representation of women on the executive committees, and shockingly, a mere 1% representation of women in P&L roles," the report said.
"Not only does mining have a poor record on engaging women in senior roles, they also have the highest gender pay gap."
The ‘mining and quarrying' companies in the count had a gender pay gap of 39.2% (between hourly rates), compared to the FTSE 350 median of 16.9%, although not all the 14 FTSE 350 miners have enough UK employees to report those numbers.
The second-highest pay gap was in real estate, with 28.5%.
The Pipeline co-founder Lorna Fitzimons told Mining Journal CEOs had to lead the push to get more women in senior roles.
"There are four key steps we advise companies to take: it has to be led from the top by the chief executive, and they have to walk the talk, not just talk about it," she said.
"Then you have to do it… that means they have to focus on the executive committee and succession plans.
"They need to have sponsorship of all women above the midpoint, so every woman that's a high-potential talent needs to be sponsored by a senior executive not from her department so that she can be visible to more people on the executive committee, so she gets more exposure and more stretch assignments, which is the only way you get to the top."
BHP announced the most ambitious goal in the sector in 2016, aiming for equal male and female employees by 2025.
Between 2016 and 2017 it managed to up the proportion of women in the company from 17.6% to 20.5%.
Fitzimons said just recruiting more women in entry-level roles would not lead to equality in c-suites a few years down the track.
"If you look outside of mining, the companies that hire either 50:50 or even more women than men are still rubbish at getting them to the top," she said.
"So, it isn't to do necessarily with the input, as in how many you recruit, it's what you do with them once you've got them. Right from the outset you need to talk to women, as early in their career as possible, about their career aspirations."
