3. The concept of educational need is not expressed in the literature. Since we have concepts of social need and financial need, perhaps we could develop a parallel concept of educational need. Such a concept would take into account: schooling or training already completed; economic potential of this training; level of schooling or training required for adequate employment; ability to complete schooling or training within a reasonable time limit (i.e. before the training becomes obsolete). Financial support would be allotted on the basis of financial and educational need for all levels and types of schooling and training. Priority of access would be determined on the basis of educational need.

4. Entitlement to education is rarely discussed in the literature. We don't really know just how much education an adult woman is legally entitled to. We do know that in Ontario, any resident is entitled to secondary education to Grade 12 or six years in secondary schooling, but not both. One major hurdle is that while a woman can claim these rights, she cannot claim the right to receive that education in an adult class. Provision for adult classes is at the discretion of the local board of education. However, she can claim the right to attend regular secondary school classes.

CCLOW might give some thought to testing this and other entitlements in a court of law.

5. Research projects about women and learning are sadly lacking both in quality and quantity. Besides being able to determine the economic value of a woman's education, we should also explore the social value of that education. We need to know more about women who don't participate; about women who fail or drop-out; about how education fits into a woman's life in ways other than as employment preparation. We need a data bank which would contain information about women's participation; about their various learning activities; about their basic characteristics and their learning characteristics; about various predictors of success or failure, participation or non-participation; and so on. We need to do some studies on the meaning and value women attach to their own learning, and to stop using male-oriented concepts.

6. One topic, which is of particular interest to me, is the current wave of brain research and the nature of consciousness and cognitive abilities. I believe that, since the brain is affected by small changes in the chemical balance of the blood, women and men must develop and use slightly different brain structures and processes; and that these would make some very basic differences in the ways they learn and what they prefer to learn. These differences would then be profoundly affected by the differing ways. in which male and female children are socialized. I am not suggesting that these differences make males better at learning, only that males and females learn differently and that we need to begin to equalize the value attached to those differences. However, before we can do any of that we need to become better acquainted with this field of investigation and with its implications for women as learners.

For example, when all socializing effects are held constant, it is apparent that women, in general, show superior manual dexterity, superior fine motor coordination, and are better able to make rapid choices than men. This means that they will probably make faster and better typists since typing requires manual dexterity, fine motor coordination and rapid decision making. But then so does neuro-surgery.

On the other hand men show superior gross motor coordination and faster reaction times (as opposed to decision times). That means they are better at playing football or at construction work, and would probably do better at housekeeping.