Of the twenty-seven women who answered the questionnaire, twenty-four identify as white. One woman identifies as Black, one as Indian from the Caribbean, and one as mixed Anglo Saxon French Native Canadian. Those of us who are white describe our race and culture in a variety of ways: fifteen as white Canadian of European descent (including three who added Mennonite, lesbian, and immigrant from the United States), four as white Canadian, two as Canadian, one as white English-speaking Canadian, one as Anglo-Saxon, and one as white French-Canadian.

Nineteen of the twenty-seven women live in the communities where we work. Four of us have lived here from seventeen to thirty-five years, ten from eight to fourteen years, and five for five years or less. Twenty of us are involved in activities and other organizations in these communities. Some of these activities are work-related, including union and literacy or adult education associations. Others involve volunteer work associated with children: coaching sports, sitting on the board of a children's choir, member of a parent-teacher association, organizer of a childcare centre.

Some of us are involved in groups which work towards equality for women, including advocacy for women in the justice system, coalitions against violence against women, a provincial lesbian action committee, and a task force to assess services for women. Many women are involved in community improvement and health groups. Some women make time for recreational activities for themselves, including ceramics, bingo, sports, and singing.

• Professional histories

We make up a very diverse group in terms of our levels of education, our salaries, and our years of experience in adult education. Most of us have volunteered or been employed in our current workplace from one to fourteen years. The average is five years. We have from two to twenty-two years experience. The average is nine years. Among those of us with one to ten years experience, our level of education ranges from some high school to a Masters degree. Of the six women who have worked in adult education from twelve to twenty-two years, all have a B.A. and three have Masters degrees. Almost all of the women with the highest levels of education work in community colleges. The relationship between women's salary, level of education, and the type of program which employs them is outlined on the chart on the opposite page.

Most of us work in hierarchical staffing structures. Only two programs defined their staffing structure as collective. Both were community-based programs in urban areas in Ontario. Women from one community-based program in eastern Canada described their structure as "sort of" collective.

We describe our reasons for doing this work in terms of personal satisfaction and in relation to our beliefs about the world. Whatever type of program we work in, whatever the working conditions in our program, most of us find this work to be very rewarding. Some of us described the rewards in terms of personal interactions: