• Isolation

Many women talked about feeling isolated in their work and about the important connection to other women they gained through this research. Some thought many women - staff and students - remain isolated because of the fear of men's response to women seeking out the company of other women. It is, therefore, essential to insist on the social nature of learning for women and to stress the importance of women workers' forging links with other women.

• Devaluation

Women in the project frequently described having little or no personal, political, or professional support for their work. Some women drew a connection between women's work in literacy and women's devalued work as caregivers in other spheres - as mothers, nurses, wives, social workers. In all of these areas the lack of recognition for this essential work often leads to bum-out and disenchantment. Some said this lack of recognition comes not only from flinders, administrators, and co-workers, but also from women literacy workers themselves when they fail to recognize the importance of meeting their own needs.

• Tensions between community-based, learner-centred work
  and woman-positive work

Some women talked about still having an internal struggle between meeting the needs of "students" and meeting the needs of "women." They have not yet found ways to integrate their woman-positive work with the philosophies of their programs. A further practical difficulty is the fact that most women are working in programs where all the staff and students already face incredible demands on their time and resources.

• The need for holistic, learner-centred work

The need for programs to recognize adult students' right to be involved in the decision-making processes was important to many women. In particular, being woman-positive must mean giving the women students significant control .over what happens. And given the systemic discrimination in our society, this may require consciously implementing more inclusive ways of working with women.

• The incredible diversity and commitment of women
  working in adult literacy and basic education

Finally, a theme that came up again and again was how the same issues seemed to arise throughout the twelve programs involved in the research. This similarity confirmed an understanding that women working in adult literacy and basic education share issues as women. despite their many differences.