• Tensions between community-based and woman-positive work

Several women raised the issue of working in programs where all the staff and students face incredible demands on their time and resources. One woman wondered how community-based programs can justify doing woman-positive work. She felt she would have to rationalize taking time and resources from "students" in order to give them to "women." Other women continued to struggle with the question of how woman-positive work, particularly work with women-only groups, is related to work with men-only groups and mixed-sex groups.

Some women emphasized the importance of exploring the similarities and differences between "woman-positive" and "feminist" work in adult literacy. Others wanted to make it clear how, as Mary Snow (Saint John Learning Exchange) said,

Being a woman is not about "not being a man." Being a woman, working with women, is not about men. It is not about hating men or excluding men. It is about women.

• The need for holistic, learner-centred work

Many women identified the holistic nature of adult literacy work as a central theme during the research process. Recognizing the complexity of literacy work included, for many women, recognizing the adult students' right to be involved in the decision-making processes that determine how programs are run. Doing woman-positive activities has to include giving all the women involved significant control over what happens. "If we are going to work with women, we need to work from them not for them," said Diane Eastman (Brandon Friendship Centre). Given the systemic discrimination in our society, this includes consciously finding and implementing more inclusive ways of working with women.

• The incredible diversity and similarity of women working in adult literacy and basic education

Woman after woman talked about the ways in which the same issues seemed to arise across the twelve programs involved in the research. Recognizing the significance of these similarities confirmed or reaffirmed for most women the understanding that we share issues as women. despite our differences. As one woman said, the incredible diversity of the women working with women has to be something that we all learn to respect and celebrate.