" I think many of us chose to work in literacy because we wanted to work in an alternative educational environment with women, where there is no standard of formal training, and it is not constrained by national professional associations.

But I wonder how many of us feel insecure and unable to insist on the value of our work for those very same reasons? If we can't value our own needs as women workers, how can we authentically value the needs of the women in our program?

This became clear when I realized that some group members were being obstructed from coming because of lack of space. Staff were used to putting up with the noise and inconvenience of lack of space and expected everyone else to. We would never expect to be given a classroom or confidential sound barriers to do our educational work like certified teachers.

Yet, the learners are the ones who really take the brunt of it all.

Anne Moore, "Taking space for woman-positive literacy work"