By the time we finished the first interview women had had time to think about the first workshop, become involved in their own activity, and anticipate the next time they would be getting together as a group. Some women had been exchanging journal writings, a few had talked together on the phone, others maintained a link through professional organizations. Over all, although they recognized differences between feminist and woman-positive approaches to choosing activities, this did not pose a problem for them. They looked forward to learning more from each other as the project progressed.

I think those that were married with children were a little afraid to call themselves feminist because how could you be a feminist and still be a mother and a wife? And then there were those that were not married and had no children. And then there were those that may have been gay. To me, it was like there were different types of people. It didn't bother me. I could see that there were differences, but then that's okay. That's what makes an interesting group. (Debbie Heagy, WEST)

We returned to this question of woman-positive/feminist in the second interview nine months later. In the meantime, having completed the first workshop, the first program visits, and the first interviews, having planned the woman-positive activities and begun to implement and document them, we began to focus on completing the descriptions of each community, program, and woman-positive activity. In doing so, we often discovered just how difficult it is to describe in straightforward terms how adult literacy programs develop, how they are funded, and how they are staffed. These descriptions are included in Chapter 6 of this book.