The funds themselves carry their own conflict. If we are dependent on the government for funds, then we must also be accountable for how those funds are spent. The government may also be entitled to tell us how to spend our funds by controlling access to future funds. In this dilemma we have several choices:

• women's groups can request and accept public funds to provide services for women, and accept whatever public control may accompany these funds (eg. day care services);

• women's groups can ask the government and/or public institutions to provide the services directly to women and accept our basic lack of control over such funds (as in Manpower programs);

• women's groups can provide our own services without assistance from public funds, and retain control over those services within our own groups but operate at a lower funding level;

• we can develop systems which combine all three sources of funding and provide control through a representative committee. An example of this is provided by the Focus on Change Program, operated by the Metro Toronto YWCA for sole-support women. One component of this program provides group and individual counselling through YWCA funds (private) and Community and Social Service funds (provincial and municipal); a second component provides academic upgrading through Board of Education funds; and a third component provides a BJRT program leading to occupational training or BTSD programs through Manpower funds and Community College funds. The advisory committee includes representatives from all three levels of government, the Board of Education and Community College involved, YWCA administrative and program staff, and interested community people. The entire process is complex, frustrating, time-consuming, and often anxiety-producing; but it does work and the program is effective.

9. Somewhere along the way to full accessibility to the educational system, the society must make some decisions about who is responsible for such functions as funding/controlling/developing/implementing each activity. This is not so much a problem of dividing limited resources, as one of dividing responsibility, accountability, and commitment into manageable portions.

For example, universal literacy is a relatively new concept in our society. About one hundred years ago, literacy was a family responsibility. When the society made the decisions which moved us from an agricultural to an industrial society, the move towards increased literacy became an essential pre-condition. Even today, the question of what constitutes literacy is unclear. Many provincial governments assume that basic literacy is reached at the Grade 5 level. Organizations such as the Canadian Association for Adult Education and the World Literacy of Canada believe that functional literacy requires completion of Grade 8. Most jobs, other than those which are unskilled, generally require Grade 10 with preference always going to those with Grade 12.