Aboriginal women shake off unjust stereotype: Goar – Toronto Star
Jul 12 2015
Research by a bank economist shows off-reserve aboriginal women outperform all other groups in the labour market.
There is a little-known flip side to the requiem for Canada’s missing and murdered aboriginal women.
It is a song of resilience. Since 2007 aboriginal women have outperformed every other group in the Canadian labour market. Their employment rate has risen. Their participation rate has gone up. Best of all, they are landing well-paying jobs in finance, real estate and education.
“This trend appears likely to continue,” said Brian DePratto, the economist at the Toronto Dominion Bank who made the surprising discovery. “As a result the aboriginal female population represents an emerging pool of skilled talent for Canadian employers.”
Until DePratto’s research was published on July 6, it was widely assumed that the earnings gap between Aboriginal Peoples and the rest of the population was sizable and persistent. That fed the perception First Nations were caught in an endless cycle of poverty, joblessness and family violence. So did the demand by the Native Women’s Association of Canada for a national inquiry into disappearances and deaths of 1,750 indigenous women.
