Previous CCLOW research has shown that adult education and training programs for women during the last two decades have had little impact on improving the general level of equality for women in Canadian society (55). Our research has reconfirmed this finding. During the course of our investigation, we identified many good programs for women, which have had excellent outcomes for the women involved. However, these programs by themselves are not sufficient to create the kind of structural changes which are necessary. What women in Canada -- and around the world -- are faced with is not simply an imbalance in the allocation of rights and goods within society, but a built-in bias toward inequality. In order to ensure that progress in one small area is not discounted by increased difficulties in another, good programs must be supported from below by an educated public demanding the positive changes which greater equality for women would bring to all members of society, and from above by government policies and budgets which directly acknowledge the size, nature and importance of the problems to be addressed.

Terms of reference for this piece of research directed it to focus in particular on the role of adult education and training policy in creating the necessary changes. In order to do this, we examined the role of adult education and training generally in creating structural changes leading to greater equality for women. What we found was that, just as programs by themselves cannot create the necessary changes, similarly education and training are necessary, but not sufficient. Education and training policies cannot be analyzed on their own, but must instead be seen within a comprehensive framework that identifies not only all those areas which are essential for change, but also the patterns of relationship among them.

5.1 Policy-Making: Priorities & Processes

The Canadian women's movement, sitting as it is now at the precipice of the twenty-first century, can look back at almost one hundred years of painfully slow, but cumulatively significant progress. All Canadian women over the age of 18 -- except those in prison -- have the right to vote. We can no longer be formally barred from access to jobs or educational institutions on the basis of gender. Most recently, the international commitments which Canada has made affirming the rights of women to economic, social, and political equality have been confirmed domestically within the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Although we no longer worry that the vote, or our rights of access to a university education may be taken away from us, we still need to be vigilant with respect to the security of our constitutional rights, as recent concerns raised about the implications of the Meech Lake Accord have shown (56). At this particular moment in history. there is considerable consensus that movement further forward in increasing women's economic and social equality rests on three legs: closing the wage gap through the enactment and implementation of equal pay for work of equal value legislation; desegregating women's paid work, through the development and enforcement of employment equity measures; and restructuring work and family life so that fulfillment in one area does not require sacrifice in the other. There is also increasing recognition that the ground underneath these three legs is shifting. As we move from an industrial economy. based on the extraction and processing of raw materials, into one based on energy and information, the shape of the economy is changing. Some jobs -- principally those within primary and secondary industries are slowly disappearing. Others are emerging, and as they do, they are changing the type and structure of jobs within the service area, where women have traditionally been concentrated. At this time, as much as or more than ever, some shared and clearly expressed vision of an ideal future is essential. With that vision, we have some influence over where that shifting ground moves us to. Without it, we are effectively left without any means for controlling or influencing the direction of change.