Lori was the full-time staff person for WEST, with space and support services provided by the SFL. The course leaders work as volunteers and their workplaces give them two to four hours of paid work release each week.

In the first training, three of the thirteen course leaders were women. Of the fifty-four students, approximately sixteen were women. In the second training, only one of the seven course leaders was a woman. Approximately thirty-four of the ninety-five current participants are women. Both course leaders and participants are representative of their workplaces. They include Native, Métis, white, and immigrant workers. The students' formal education ranges from none to grade 12 and their ages range from 18 to 58. The classes have a participatory critical approach to education. There are no standard curriculum, textbooks, or testing.

Involvement in the CCLOW research project

Lori read about the women and literacy research project in the Saskatchewan Literacy Network Newsletter. She immediately contacted CCLOW to expresses her interest since she could imagine several ways in which WEST could benefit from being involved. She was personally interested in understanding more about how women might be better served by the program. She also saw an opportunity for women course leaders to receive more support, training, and opportunities.

Debbie Heagy was a course leader with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) program with the Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon and Nicole Jessop was the course leader with the Retail, Wholesale, Department Store Union (RWDSU) program at the Imperial 400 Hotel in Regina. Debbie and Nikki, two of three women who participated in the first course leaders' training, became the WEST contact women for the research.

Early on they talked with Lori about why the proportion of women course leaders and participants was so small. It is true that, overall, women are less likely than men to work in unionized settings. Also, five of the workplaces involved in the program are male-dominated work sites, while three are female-dominated. However, after talking about the situation with other women, Debbie and Nikki decided there might be other reasons as well.

The woman-positive activity

As the woman-positive activity for WEST, Debbie and Nikki decided to look at what happens when women become involved in WEST as course leaders. They investigated how and why women became involved, exploring the course leaders' experiences of finding out about the program, taking the two one-week training courses, teaching in the classroom, and ongoing support services. They not only explored their own and other women's experiences of being involved, they also talked with women in the different workplaces who did not become involved. They tried to work out whether there was anything WEST could do to encourage more women to participate.