Within this context, what is the role of education and training? In our report we identified an 'ideal' direction for policy: one which moves adult education and training out of its predominantly remedial role and into an increasingly transformative one. Currently, most adult education and training programs for women are concerned with attempting to compensate for an educational system which does not prepare women adequately, either in terms of basic skills or in terms of knowledge and attitudes for the realities of working life in the late twentieth century, and for an economic system which offers to women an unacceptable amount of low quality employment. If women emerged from secondary school education literate, with respect not only to language and mathematics, but also to their own culture, history, and place in today's society, truly transformative education at critical points further along the learning lifecycle would become much more of a possibility. If the implementation of the principle of equal pay for work of equal value was pervasive throughout society, and if employment equity measures meant that women were being actively recruited for work in areas where they are currently under represented, the difficult task of designing training programs which match the preferences and developed skills and abilities of adult women with high quality jobs would become much less a matter of searching for needles in hay stacks. This ideal policy direction then requires that support for a different approach to adult education and training go hand in hand with policies designed to change public values and attitudes, close the gender-based wage gap, and provide equal employment opportunities for women across the whole spectrum of paid working life.

5.2 Public-Policy: Results of the Analysis

A concise summary of our analysis of existing policy would say that although we are very far from seeing this ideal direction become an everyday reality, there is nothing to be gained by simply giving up. Progress may be painfully slow, but progress is possible. We found a number of positive signs.

There is an increasing recognition in policy of women's right to equality. Within the federal government and within every province and territory, we found some explicit recognition in policy that the status of women is important and that there are inequities that need to be removed. Within the field of employment training, implicitly disparaging comments about women as a 'secondary labour force' or about women's 'minimal attachment' to the paid labour market which were still quite common even five years ago, have all but disappeared.

Within government bureaucracies across the country there are women, and some men, who are dedicated to the same vision of the future and to the same idea of the kind of education and training necessary to realize that vision that our report describes. These women were virtually absent from the halls of government 15, or even 10 years ago. They are prepared to work with outside organizations to push ceaselessly for whatever small changes are possible within their own situation.

There is support for the kind of mediating role which second-level organizations such as CCLOW play in advocating on behalf of programs with the goals of influencing policy. Increasingly, governments are engaging in consultation with groups like CCLOW at both national and regional levels. Despite a variety of problems with the consultation process generally, it does indicate a recognition that women have a right to participate in decision-making with respect to policies that are of concern to them.

Supporting policies designed to make the broad commitment to women's equality concrete are being created. At the federal level, the development of a new national child care policy is notable, as is the explicit commitment within the Canadian Jobs Strategy to training for women, and to training for the employment disadvantaged. In a number of regions, new federal-provincial agreements are creating new opportunities for training, education and employment creation for social assistance recipients. There appears to be some potential for positive movement in the area of literacy, both federally and in regions across the country. Equal pay for work of equal value legislation has been passed federally and in Quebec, Manitoba, and Ontario. It is being proposed in Prince Edward Island. Ontario's Training Strategy explicitly recognizes the special needs of women. The federal government has taken the lead with respect to employment equity, providing one model for legislation and contract compliance.