As we had expected, we received replies from practitioners in community literacy programs, from workers in women's upgrading groups, and from staff in community colleges and boards of education. Many expressed a strong concern about the lack of good Canadian literacy materials for women, and talked about discovering some excellent women's literacy materials from England, and some from Australia as well. Many referred us to the new materials about women's life experiences being published by learners at East End Literacy Press in Toronto, and to other materials written by adult women learners, many of which are unpublished or published in local newsletters. These and other materials will be documented in our resource guide.

We also received a surprising number of replies from other groups and individuals. Here are just a few examples.

We heard from several of the Elizabeth Fry Societies about the need for women's literacy materials for women in prison and women who are returning from prison to the community. The Elizabeth Fry Society also urged federal government employees responsible for adult education and literacy training programs in our federal prisons to contact us. This project served to raise their consciousness and to encourage them to ask questions about women' experience of the prison eduction system, including the supposed gender "neutrality" of learning materials used in the prisons.

Some health organizations, such as an immigrant women's health center and an association concerned with anorexia nervosa. sent us samples of their materials and expressed concern about the need to have easy-to-read materials on women's health issues. At the same time. we received a set of guidelines for writing easy-to-read women's health materials which appeared in a recent issue of Health-sharing, and a copy of a new, easy-to-read handbook on women's health.

DAWN, the disabled women' s network, wrote to confirm that reading and writing difficulties are experienced by many disabled women and to emphasize the need for programs and materials to be accessible to disabled women.

From native and Inuit groups. we learned about the importance of developing materials for native women in their own language. materials which respect and reflect their own culture. From one native program in northern Ontario. we received a paper which explores the implications of teaching methodology for native adult learners. From an Inuit adult education group in the North West Territories, we received an English translation of the scripts for a short, easy-to-read play about taking action on spousal assault.

A vocational training coordinator reminded us about the technical skins that women want to learn: "I have found that materials that show simply and easily how to do something (repair an electrical plug, boost a car) are a very popular learning resource for women."

Our next step... CCLOW is organizing a volunteer working group of women literacy practitioners and women with experience in plain writing from across the country to review and evaluate recommended materials for inclusion in the resource guide. We anticipate that as we assess the materials, the literacy practitioners involved in the working group win work to find a way of involving interested women learners from their programs.

The working group will also be addressing some of the questions raised by the respondents, identifying gaps in the kinds of literacy materials available for women in Canada, and developing guidelines for assessing literacy materials for women. An important task of the group will be to look to the future - to explore the possibility of developing women's literacy materials and curriculum.

Looking forward... As we work with the findings of the survey, I am struck by the fact that there is the potential within our Canadian literacy and women's movements to create not only examples of women's literacy materials, but also to explore the larger questions about whether and how we develop literacy curriculum for adult women learners.

• Is there a need for feminist curriculum at the literacy level? Who should be involved in developing it?

• How can we support literacy projects to involve adult women learners in developing their own materials and their own curriculum?

• What are the guidelines for assessing and developing feminist literacy materials?

• How do we respond to the argument that literacy instruction is gender "neutral"?

• Is there a need for a network of feminist literacy practitioners?

• Is there a need for a network of women literacy learners?

As I have reviewed the respondents' comments and pursued feminist readings on the theme of literacy, I have been impressed by the fact that a number of feminist literacy educators and feminist theorists are challenging us to think about women's literacy materials not so much in terms of women 'sneeds, but in terms of women's sb"engths and their resistance to the class, race, and gender oppression they experience. There are many unanswered questions and there is much to be done, but it is clear that we need to give adult women learners an opportunity to express their own voices, to share and develop their own culture, and to participate in Canadian society.

A copy of the CCLOW resource guide to Canadian literacy materials for women will be distributed free of charge by CCLOW to all those who sent in information to the project, and on a cost recovery basis to others. It is anticipated that the resource guide will be ready for publication early in 1989. Readers who have materials to recommend or are otherwise interested in the project should write to: Gladys Watson, CCLOW, 47 Main Street, Toronto, Ontario M4E 2V6; or telephone (416) 699-1909.

Gladys Watson is an activist in literacy and adult education for women. As a librarian and researcher working from a feminist perspective. she is interested in materials and resource centers for women literacy learners and practitioners. Currently, Gladys is on staff with the Canadian Congress of Learning Opportunities for Women (CCLOW).