Before First Contact with the Europeans, women had a strong political role to play in many. This role has been diminished over time, to the point where their political voices have been silenced and violence against Aboriginal women has become a huge societal ill. The Indian Act played a large role in this: it stripped women of their status to be a legal Indian on their own – a woman had to have an Aboriginal husband or father in order to receive the privileges and rights that came with being an Indian. (Authors)