The Canadian Association for Adult Education recently asked the leaders of federal political parties to comment on their party's general position on the topic of learning opportunities for women. The leader of the Progressive Conservative Party, Joe Clark, sent the following answer:

"The continuing drop in enrollment in post-secondary institutions as a result of the low birth rate in the last decade and the lack of job opportunities after graduation will ease, to a certain extent, the problem of access for women to university for the next few years."¹

" This answer is none too clear and tends to cause confusion. The actual amount of information it contains is minimal at best. Further questioning and clarification is clearly in order.

11. We explored some of the more inappropriate concepts involved in the study of learning opportunities. There are clearly more to come. In general, the material is based on concepts relevant to the learning experiences of men. The major cause is that women have not yet begun to explore the meaning of their own learning. The inappropriateness of the concepts leads to an indirect form of sexual stereotyping. For example:

• women tend to define themselves ( in a positive sense) on the basis of the presence or absence of children rather than the presence of absence of a man; and on the basis of general occupational area rather than the organization for which they work. Their identity, therefore, is different from that of a man in ways which could be a disadvantage They might demand fewer fringe benefits or training/advancement opportunities, from their employer if they feel less attached in some way. Women need to learn to define themselves in ways which do not depend on a relationship to another person.

• Leisure as a concept is basically irrelevant to many women, particularly those who have children at home. For working mothers, the concept is even more irrelevant. Such women engage in learning activities which fit into their discretionary time -- a pattern of short time periods in between family and work responsibilities. They tend to become involved in leisure activities which relate to their family or work responsibilities, rather than as pure leisure. For example, immigrant women might prefer to learn English or French as part of a learning activity related to home management, such as sewing or cooking, or related to employment skills.

• success and women's motives to avoid it are also concepts which may be irrelevant as they are currently used. While it may be true that women avoid male-type achievement, we know little about female-type achievement.

• productivity as measured by absenteeism, by income, by the number of hours worked, etc. may be totally irrelevant to women and work. Perhaps women work fewer hours because they are capable of completing the same volume of work in less time than it takes a man. We also need to find ways to measure a mother's productivity.

This type of sexual stereotyping is hard to combat. Women tend to have accepted male-defined concepts as being real. The American Psychological Association has a new division, the Psychology of Women, which focuses not so much on comparisons between the sexes, as on the uniqueness of the female condition. The Maccoby-Jacklin book listed in the bibliography represents an initial attempt to summarize some of these problems.

^1. Letter to Allan Thomas, President of the Canadian Association for Adult Education, from Joe Clark, Leader of the Opposition and of the federal Progressive Conservative Party. Dated August 31th, 1978. Ottawa.