by the Participatory Research Group

The Women's Kit is a set of eight booklets written about women in several parts of the world. The topics include: finding paid work; housework; health; child care; women's days; women working together; violence in the home; and working conditions. The covers are colorful, the stories are short, and drawings and cartoons add interest and illustrate some of the problems and attitudes women face.

The women in my class enjoyed the stories. They found the print and sentences easy to read. They could relate to most of the situations, even if just to compare the circumstances of others' jobs, families and housework to their own.

The students liked the idea that the stories were based on reality and were about women. For some students, the booklets increased the awareness of the universality of women's problems. Other women commented that they already knew of the problems and that we should be helping to change things, an indication that the booklets had provided a nudge toward some action.

There was a wide range of reading abilities in the class that read the booklets. A student who found the reading difficult said that the cartoons and pictures helped a lot. Although most of the students found the reading easy to understand, even the most advanced student had trouble with some of the vocabulary and expressions such as "got the sack" However, most of the ideas and language are straightforward and result in good group discussions. The booklets would be suitable for individual or one-to-one settings as well. For use in a group, some pre-reading preparation would be required for vocabulary and expressions; otherwise only an introduction would be necessary.

A review by Erica Bresee, Powell River, B.C.