That's a very broad question. I'll reflect first and look at our government, the Métis government. In fact, most of the people who are employed there are women. Actually, a lot of them are in management and are directors. But if you look at the status of the community, you'll find that in Métis communities, women actually face a very challenging hill; they have to go over and above their male counterparts. In our culture the women are always the dominant force in the family, especially when it comes to children. You'll find in Métis communities that there are no programs set aside. There are no aboriginal head start programs; we don't have those in our communities. If somebody is fortunate enough to get a day care, again, it will not be located in our rural communities; we don't have them. They will have to travel great distances to drop off their children or find babysitting within their own families, and at the same time try to get an education or a job.
So the challenge women face is...I would say it's a major hindrance, in the sense of them catching up to the issue we find in this country. How do we balance the state of women versus men in this country? What I do know for a fact is that when we tried at the Métis National Council to raise the profile of Métis women, to include their views and their points, and to bring issues of this nature to the fore, we were disallowed funding.
We have our Métis Women's Secretariat, which is within our Métis Nation government structure, but Canada will not fund it. This is a standing position of the previous government and of this government. They will not fund it unless it incorporates itself and becomes a creature in itself--not to work with our governments, not to be with us, not to sit at the table to make change in the very fabric of what affects them; they have to be separate and completely apart from us. From our governance structure in the Métis government, it doesn't make sense. Even the women don't agree with it. For some reason, the government continues to push this issue, and Métis women today do not have either a seat at the constitutional table when we have discussions or a seat in the sense of the aboriginal leadership in this country.
We are still pressing that issue very strongly, but again, it's a good example to showcase that Métis women are falling further behind because there's a lack of support for them.