This up-front focus on woman-positive left women open to an often surprising intensity of feeling. During a phase one conversation, another woman literacy worker said:

Thank god that we can't go on all day thinking in these terms. That we just get on with making lunch. Because I . . . feel paralyzed with what we're talking about. The intensity of fear, rage, all that stuff, I couldn't live with feeling this every minute of my day. I wouldn't function. (Lloyd, 1991a, 42)

This "nerviness," this intensity, was echoed by many of the women as they entered into the research. It was also mixed with a tremendous sense of excitement - and relief - and awkwardness. We would, after all, be spending significant parts of the next two years talking about our work as women in literacy. Although this would happen in a context of on-going support, one that included a complex understanding of "community ," we didn't know what we could expect from each other, from our programs, or from ourselves.

The women who participated in this project have outlined their experience of this process in The power of woman-positive literacy work: Program-based action research, a book that includes a detailed outline of the research process, descriptions of the various woman-positive activities in the context of their programs and communities, and a collaborative analysis of the project as a whole. The writings in this book focus on issues that became important for us personally, professionally, and politically during the research process.

In this article, I have adapted a paper first delivered in the time between the two phases. After completing the exploratory work, I spent time clarifying three issues I felt would become important during the program-based work: understanding the term "woman-positive" in the different contexts of the research, discovering the relationship between learner-centred/ community-based work and woman-positive work, and dealing with the always-present question, "What about the men?"

Approaching the concept of "woman-positive"

Going into phase two of this research I understood a "woman-positive" activity as an activity that, in its particular context, arises out of the expressed . needs and desires of particular women working in that context. It was an activity that was open to change as its participants went through a process of reflection and analysis, vision and strategizing. This meant the activity was not fixed. It also meant that the activity did not have to meet ALL the needs and desires of ALL the women in the program, although it must meet SOME of the expressed needs and desires of SOME of the women in the program.

It also meant, for me, that during the process of planning, implementing and documenting the activity, the women involved might come to understand which women in the program have benefited from the activity and which women have been marginalized by the activity. I hoped women would better understand where and why they gained support for the activity and where and why they met resistance. I hoped they would be able to envision and strategize around future activities that might more effectively gain support, meet resistance, and benefit more women within their context.