[MUSIC] As Aboriginal communities and individuals became increasingly embedded in the changing culture of Canada, Aboriginal women became some of the first peoples to move off reserve and into western communities. This was due in part to the previously discussed Indian Act enfranchisement policies of the Canadian government and the forced enfranchisement of women who married non-status Indian men. Status Indian women who married non-status Indian men, even if they were ethnically and self-identified as Indigenous, had their Indian status revoked. Women lost their Indian rights when they were enfranchised, and often had their band membership terminated as well. Enfranchisement meant a loss of compensation and support, and termination of band membership prevented women from accessing their home communities. The exclusion extended to any of her children. In addition, enfranchised Indians were unable to pass on their Indian status and associated rights to their children which resulted in women's ties to their communities being severed. Women were separated from their communities on a number of levels, including emotionally, physically, geographically, spiritually and so on. The origins of these regulations although in place in earlier versions of the Indian Act. In the 1951 amendments to the Indian Act, section 12 1b, introduced that Indian women with status were not entitled to Indian status registration under Canadian law if they married a person who was not Indian. Without legal status, formerly Indian women were unable to access Indian Act benefits, practice inherent rights to live on their reserve, inherit family property, or be buried on reserve with ancestors. Restricted from access to their First Nation community, women without Indian status were unable to participate in ceremonies and rituals on their traditional land. However, these conditions did not apply to status Indian men who married non-status women. In fact, status Indian men who married non-status women were able to keep their status. Section 12, sub section 1b, of the Indian Act, worked to disadvantage the position of Indian women, and can be considered an attempt to demolish their families and alienate these women from their land. Inflicting discriminatory laws, the Canadian government marginalized and disadvantaged First Nations women. Additional enfranchisement provisions included the removal of someone's status if they withdrew from treaty or their children if they received what at the time was called half-breed scrip. The Indian Act provisions also applied in cases where people gave up their scrip to enter into a profession such as a lawyer or doctor, or if they have voted, or owned property. Due to these and related provisions, many women were forced to leave their home communities and migrate to urban areas. This would create a huge disconnection for these women from their extended families and vice versa. Section 12 of the 1951 amendment gained the attention of female political movements contributing to a variety of proposals for reform. It would not be until the implementation of Bill C-31 in 1985, and later Bill C-3 in 2011, that many formerly status Indian women would regain their lost status and their children would gain status. >>In addition to the push factors just described, several pull factors that led women to move into the city. These included educational opportunities, for example, in work placement. In the 1940s for example, Canadian medical sectors began to train Indigenous women to become nurses and health care practitioners. These programs required women to leave their home communities and to make the move into cities to attend formal training. The largest struggles for many of these women, however, came after they had received their degrees. In some cases, women were denied positions within their own communities even though the training had focused on community nursing, seemingly a good fit for community needs. Department of Indian Affairs agents feared that nurses might not want to move back to their home communities because their education would somehow cause them to lose respect, or affection for their own people. Educational programs were just another way in which Canada attempted to assimilate Aboriginal women into Canadian society. This is reflected within the context of a woman being denied positions in their own communities due to the fears that they would culturally backslide from assimilation if they returned to their home communities. Due to such concerns, non-Aboriginal professionals would maintain control of health care in Indigenous communities. Another popular work option for Indigenous women was to enter beauty schools. Beauty programs were run in correspondence with government sponsored placement and relocation programs. The Department of Indian Affairs highly supported hairdressing as it was considerably more cost efficient than other government sponsored vocational training programs. Much of the training took place through apprenticeships or other training programs. An interesting aspect to the history of Aboriginal women, in the beauty industry was a lack of racial segregation in a time where this was the norm. This was due to the ideology of integration promoted and favoured by the Department of Indian Affairs, as it played into the ideas of assimilation. When promoting beauty schools, the department often emphasized the integration within schools and photo captions, pointing out Indians working on non-Indian clients. Although there was an underlining aspect of assimilation, we must remember that for Aboriginal women, beauty schools became a place in which race was less of a barrier for them. Race did not determine the quality of training they received, nor did it act as a determinant for whether or not one could hold a job. Similar arguments can be made for the treatment of Indian men in military services. [MUSIC]
