Eighty-five percent of the interviews I conducted for Opening Doors (75 out of 88) were with women. I met women in their late 20's to their early 70's, some with young children and some whose children had long since left home. Most of the women were married and living relatively comfortably within their communities (see Reflections 1) yet no two women brought the same combination of education or skills to the job. Even though they were all at different stages and different seasons in their lives, all the women I talked to admitted to experiencing growth as they continue to enjoy and learn from the challenges and diversity of their literacy work.

Many women talked about the discovery of a side to themselves they never knew they had, of inherent skills and abilities they were unfamiliar with until they began their work in literacy. They talked about a hunger for further self-discovery and expressed gratitude coward their literacy work for providing them with so many new experiences.

When I look at the scope of literacy work I often wonder what keeps people from turning around and running out the door. What happens to people when they find themselves in a literacy position where they are not supported very much, trained very much, paid very much and not given much guidance? To their credit, literacy workers (who again are mostly women) have been able to develop the necessary skills to do the job by their intuition and their trust in what works, what feels good and what produces results. They learn by doing, by respecting each other's experiences and by interacting and working together.

As literacy workers continue to gather and talk and learn from their experiences they are inadvertently defining and shaping the work they do, as well as their approach to that work. Their discussions lead to ideas and efforts which in turn influence the growth and shape of the field. That is an exciting discovery for literacy workers but even more exciting is the personal development they are experiencing as they begin to see the benefits and results of their energies and commitment.

Even in my relatively short involvement in literacy I have witnessed and been excited by the ground-breaking progress in the development of personal and professional support for literacy workers, most of which they initiated on their own. What continues to intrigue me is how women are being shaped by the literacy field at the same time that the field is being shaped by them.

Women enjoy a collaborative approach to their work. They develop strong relationships. mentor each other, are sensitive to each other and respect each other's experiences as valuable teaching tools. Their interaction over the years has promoted the development of an impressive literacy network.in Alberta and beyond.

Literacy workers have formed and strengthened this network with deliberate patience and care. For many people in the field the network is synonymous with survival. Just as "the trailer ladies" at Medicine Hat College (see Chapter 6) have strived to establish a sense of community in the trailer, literacy workers in the province work hard to maintain the foundation and network that is their grounding and their lifeline. They have come to appreciate the fact that so much of their own strength and effectiveness in the job depends on the strength and effectiveness of the network.

Even with the establishment of the literacy network the literacy field is often still referred to as a "female ghetto". Certainly in terms of monetary recognition, literacy could be considered a "female ghetto" because most people who work in the field are grossly underpaid. Others would add that the field is a "female ghetto" because there are more women then men in the field and because for many, the attitudes they face regarding their work is often patronizing and undermining. Literacy workers often feel "second best", "the lowest on the totem pole" and "left behind" (see Reflections 4). Some feel mistreated and unrecognized by their local hosting authorities, institutions, politicians and even the general public. CAROL ULMER from Drayton Valley describes her interaction with a school in her area: