C++: cannot access protected member from derived class

I have a class MyVariable that holds an object and does some extra work when this object has to be modified. Now I want to specialize this to MyContainer for container objects that perform this extra work only when the container itself is modified (e.g. via push_back()) but not its elements.

My code looks like this:

template<typename T>
class MyVariable
{
public:
    //read-only access if fine
    const T* operator->() const {return(&this->_element);}
    const T& operator*()  const {return( this->_element);}

    //write acces via this function
    T& nonconst()
    {
        //...here is some more work intended...
        return(this->_element);
    }
protected:
    T _element;
};


template<typename T>
class MyContainer: public MyVariable<T>
{
public:
    template<typename Arg>
    auto nonconst_at(Arg&& arg) -> decltype(MyVariable<T>::_element.at(arg))
    {
        //here I want to avoid the work from MyVariable<T>::nonconst()
        return(this->_element.at(arg));   
    }
};


#include <vector>
int main()
{
    MyContainer<std::vector<float>> container;
    container.nonconst()={1,3,5,7};
    container.nonconst_at(1)=65;
}

However, with GCC4.7.2 I get an error that I cannot access _element because it is protected.

test1.cpp: In substitution of 'template<class Arg> decltype (MyVariable<T>::_element.at(arg)) MyContainer::nonconst_at(Arg&&) [with Arg = Arg; T = std::vector<float>] [with Arg = int]':
test1.cpp:39:25:   required from here
test1.cpp:17:4: error: 'std::vector<float> MyVariable<std::vector<float> >::_element' is protected
test1.cpp:26:7: error: within this context
test1.cpp: In member function 'decltype (MyVariable<T>::_element.at(arg)) MyContainer<T>::nonconst_at(Arg&&) [with Arg = int; T = std::vector<float>; decltype (MyVariable<T>::_element.at(arg)) = float&]':
test1.cpp:17:4: error: 'std::vector<float> MyVariable<std::vector<float> >::_element' is protected
test1.cpp:39:25: error: within this context
test1.cpp: In instantiation of 'decltype (MyVariable<T>::_element.at(arg)) MyContainer<T>::nonconst_at(Arg&&) [with Arg = int; T = std::vector<float>; decltype (MyVariable<T>::_element.at(arg)) = float&]':
test1.cpp:39:25:   required from here
test1.cpp:17:4: error: 'std::vector<float> MyVariable<std::vector<float> >::_element' is protected
test1.cpp:26:7: error: within this context

What's going on here?