I think being woman-positive is making women feel they have the right to act. That's sort of a base line to start with. And not that we just have rights, but that we have a responsibility too.

Doing woman-positive work here meant taking the responsibility to raise issues that others would prefer to ignore.

Similarly, for Jeanne MacIntyre (Keyano College) doing woman-positive work implied becoming more pro-active by taking the perspective of women in the community and initiating changes. The actions didn't have to be major and they might not work exactly as planned the first time through. However, if we can learn from our mistakes and let others know about our experiences, then we are creating a more positive environment for all students.

Her colleague, Nancy Steel (Keyano College), suggested that "programs that take the lead from women are woman-positive." Women need to be seen as something other than "equal to men," she added. Women deserve to be seen as "women." Other women took up the theme that woman-positive work means seeing things from women's rather than men's perspective. Woman-positive means "dealing with the things the women want rather than things the men want and think we need." (Gail Lanoie, Brandon Friendship Centre)

A few of the women experienced this perspective shift less as a move from men's to women's perspective than as a move from staff to student perspective. At first, Eileen Gorman (Pine Grove Correctional Centre) believed that doing something woman-positive meant helping women by doing something for them.

Now I see that the thrust should come from the client, that they should be telling us and we should be helping them expand on the activity. But we have to take the lead from them and that's the reverse to what I thought at the start. Now I have to sit and listen and work out what is it they really want.

Some women continued to use the term "woman-positive" much as they might use the term "feminist." Others began to think about woman-positive as a more practical term, one that allowed them to get on with their work. It did not alienate women who might feel biased against feminism and, therefore, allowed more women to participate in the activities.

• How do you think woman-positive and feminist are similar?
  How do you think they are different?

Several women acknowledged that feminism had been important to their way of thinking and being in the world. At the same time, they felt calling an activity "feminist" would be making it more narrow than calling it "woman-positive." And, most important perhaps, they wanted to have a broadly defined, broadly accessible activity.

I would hate to think that anything that's feminist would not be woman-positive. But I think that some things in the way we understand feminism are exclusive. They are not meant to be, but it doesn't always work all the way around for everybody. (Mary Ann Tierney, College of New Caledonia)