• illiterate women tend to cluster in two major occupational groups: service and assembling occupations. Illiterate men tend to cluster in three major occupational groups: service, agricultural and construction occupations.
  
  
• three-quarters of women who are registered in vocational courses are taking one of four courses: typing & shorthand; nursing; teaching; and hairdressing.
  
  
• three-quarters of men who are registered in vocational courses are taking one of ten courses: auto mechanics; electrical equipment repair; tool & die-making; technological; welding; radio, T.V. & electronic equipment repair; accounting & auditing; drafting; carpentry; and the pipe trades.
  
  
• for illiterate women, there are 5 courses in which more than 10% of registered women have grade 8 or less schooling: hairdressing; garment making & repair; power sewing; merchandising; and commercial cooking.
  
  
• for illiterate men, there are 15 courses in which more than 10% of registered men have grade 8 or less schooling.
  
  
• 66% of female earners and 31% of male earners can be counted in the low income group (i.e. in 1971 less than $4 000).
  
  
• 80% of female earners with grade 8 or less schooling and 40% of male earners with grade 8 or less schooling were in the low income group
  
  
• increased schooling does not provide as great an economic benefit for women as it provides for men.
  
  
• average family income for female-headed families was only 56% as high as the income for all families.
  
  
• the proportion of families with low income declines as schooling level of the head increases. However, for female-headed families, the likelihood of the family having a low income is greater than it is for all families at all schooling levels.
  
  
• as the schooling level of a woman increases, the birth rate decreases.

Other sources tiled the following general information about functionally literate adults:

"A number of recent studies have related health standards to a selection of social classifiers (age, sex, education, etc.). For nations in the Western Hemisphere, improved life-expectancy has depended far less on medical advances than on the rise in the literacy rate. A recent U. S. study suggests that education is a better investment than medical science for reducing mortality...

"It is one of those sociological ironies that the middle and upper income; groups benefit most from medicare programs. Being on the average better educated and better informed, they are equipped to take full advantage of such social services...

"There is little doubt that public responsibility and participation increases with the amount of schooling Both the crime rate and the incidence of violent crime decreases as the amount of schooling increases There is a positive correlation between level of concern for the environment and the amount of schooling." (1)

Factors which tend to cluster with low levels of formal schooling are: (2)

• diminished ability to communicate with others
• increase use of governmental social services "
• decreased participation in parent-school activities
• diminished self-confidence
• diminished feelings of job security
• increased reliance on government transfer payments as major income
• lower involvement in community activities
• diminished ability to recall what was read or heard
• low evaluation of own ability
• increased likelihood of being employed in unskilled or semi-skilled occupations or blue collar occupations

(1.) J. S. Kirkaldy and D. M. Black, "Social reporting and educational planning: A feasibility study". Prepared for the Commission on Post-Secondary Education in Ontario (COPSE). (Toronto: Ontario Government Bookstore, 1972) p.112

(2.) D. L. Boggs and others, "Ohio citizens eligible for Adult Basic Education". Paper presented to the Adult Education Research Conference, San Antonio, Texas, 1978. Department of Regional Economic Expansion (DREE), Planning Division, Who knows? Report of the Canada Newstart Program. (Ottawa: Information Canada, 1973).