Aboriginal Women’s Employment in Non-Traditional and Resource Extractive Industries in Northern Manitoba: Aboriginal Women’s Employment in Non-Traditional and Resource Extractive Industries in Northern Manitoba: An Exploration of the Issues Webinar Presentation September 15, 2010 Winnipeg, MB

Presentation Overview Methods and Procedures Findings –Recruitment Training Transition to the Workplace Northern Economic Development –Retention Childcare Women-centred supports and designated spaces Workplace harassment Gender and race-based discrimination Health and safety

Study Objectives To provide a venue for Aboriginal women to voice their perceptions and experiences of non-traditional and resource extractive industries in Northern Manitoba To explore socio-economic and health outcomes of these industries for Aboriginal women, their families and communities To understand recruitment and retention challenges for Aboriginal women within these industries

Findings: Recruitment Work, family and community connections Wanting to try something different Drawn to mechanical and physical work Financial incentives Training and employment close to home Promotion of Aboriginal employment Promotion of Aboriginal women employees

Participant: Recruitment Career change is one of the things that enticed me. And that the training is being done in town here. I don’t think I would have got into it if it was elsewhere. Also, my youngest is 14 now, so I don’t have as many challenges with childcare, so I’m able to do something like this now….

Findings: Training Positive experience Close to home Camaraderie and support Negative experience  Not always provided  Not always sufficient  Training different from actual work responsibilities  Training criteria

Participant: Training You always see in the outreach office, there’s always hydro training, heavy equipment operator training being offered. Every time I went to apply for it, they go “oh, you’re Treaty, you can’t take it, It’s only for Métis”. I also had the same problem going to [another community], “well you don’t live here”. I always felt like I wasn’t allowed, I wasn’t included in anything…

Findings: Transition to Workplace  Need greater access to support services (i.e. job shadowing/mentorship)  Need more role models (not many Aboriginal employees and less Aboriginal women employees)  Need grace period to transition from social assistance to salary-based income

Findings: Perceptions of Northern Economic Development Work close to home Pride in being able to do the work Economic opportunities and independence for Aboriginal women

Participant: Perceptions of Northern Economic Development I’m for anybody to work here. Especially I’d like to see a lot more women. I’d like to see more women underground [in the mine].

Findings: Retention You can’t get work if you don’t have daycare. I had to depend on my parents. It was basically thrown on them. I was bringing my daughter in to work at 4 a.m. I had little blankets set up for her underneath my desk and she would have to sleep there then get somebody to pick her up at 8 a.m. to go to school. Childcare

Findings: Retention Women-centered Supports and Designated Spaces I came in for overtime and I told [my boss] ‘I need to access the bathroom’ and he made that day hard for me. I made it clear that I’m not being ignorant by asking for the cage. I’m on my ‘womanlies’ and I need to be near a bathroom where I can do what a woman does and wash my hands when I’m done. That’s a hard part for women. It cannot be a reason why I cannot be at work.

Findings: Retention Workplace Harassment When I first started a gentleman saw me sitting there and he swore “What the F? We have women working here now? Don’t you have anything better to do that coming to work down here with the men?” And I said, “Excuse me? I’ll have you know I went to university and I have bills to pay just like everyone else” and he said, “Oh and you have balls too”. I didn’t find it to be harassment, I just found he was intimidated that I was down there, scared that I might be able to do a little more than he could.

Findings: Retention Gender and Race-based Discrimination I think my immediate supervisor had a problem with me being Aboriginal and being a woman and being outspoken but I know at the end he had a lot of respect for me. But I had to fight for that. There’s other women in that lab that are non-Aboriginal and I see the difference. I gave it my best shot because I was an Aboriginal person. I know how people see us and expect us to be and I blew that [out of] the water. Things I learned along the way make me more determined to succeed in whatever I’m doing because I am Aboriginal and because I am a female Aboriginal.

Findings: Retention Health and Safety They did not tell me to wear a face mask or a respirator and I was cutting those 20 mm re-bars. I was cutting those things all day and I was breathing in those small pieces of metal. It made me sick. I was actually throwing up chunks of metal. I didn’t really know about that kind of safety. That was my first labour job, in the industry.

Study Overview: An Exploration of the Issues in Saskatchewan –To provide a venue for Aboriginal women to voice their perceptions and experiences on working for resource extractive industries, including uranium and potash mining, in Saskatchewan. –To explore the positive and negative socio- economic and health outcomes of employment in uranium and potash industries for Aboriginal women, their families and communities. –To understand the opportunities and challenges of recruitment and retention of Aboriginal women within resource extractive industries in Saskatchewan. Colonsay Esterhazy Wollaston Lake

Thank you! Roberta Stout Researcher, Aboriginal Women’s Health Prairie Women’s Health Centre of Excellence 56 The Promenade Winnipeg, MB R3B 3H9 P: (204) F: (204) E: W: