Taking chances/Making choices:
Reflections on a year of woman-positive activity

Debbie Heagy
Workers' Education for Skills Training (WEST)
Saskatchewan Federation of Labour, Regina, SK

Union-based literacy programs can empower women workers if they pay . attention to women's lives. This is the conclusion Nicole Jessop and I came to after , a year of woman-positive activity in a literacy program called Workers' Education for Skills Training (WEST). Our work was part of an action research project with the Canadian Congress for Learning Opportunities for Women (CCLOW). It led not only to my professional growth but also to my personal growth. I had the opportunity to reflect on changes I needed to make - changes that would give me control over where I was going in my life and in my work.

WEST is a worker-controlled union program that operates with the cooperation of management in a variety of workplaces. Workers help other workers increase their reading, writing, math, and communicating skills to enable them to become more confident in their workplaces, unions, and communities. In the fall of 1990, I became involved as a volunteer course leader in my workplace, a large Saskatchewan hospital. I began to see that I could make a difference to others not just by teaching literacy but also by sharing my own increased self confidence.

I have a history of taking chances. I like to take risks. Enthusiasm and flying by the seat of my pants have gone hand-in-hand in helping me overcome some of the challenges I have encountered. Learning on the job and taking advantage of skill development workshops, as well as union membership and increasing union activity, eventually got me to where I was a year ago. I was able to move into jobs because I was confident in my ability to learn and I was able to verbalize that belief. I often thought, "Other women have done this. I can too, given a chance."

When I became involved with the CCLOW research I lived in Saskatoon and Nicole lived in Regina. When we talked together at the first national workshop in Winnipeg, we realized that only a very small number of women participated In WEST as course leaders or as students. We decided to look at why our numbers were so small. We talked to women who got involved in the programs and women who didn't. We talked to men and women taking the training to be course leaders. And, we reflected on our own experiences with the training and with the program.

The research gave me an opportunity to write and talk about my work and my life. I began to look at myself and the effects my work in literacy had on my life as a woman.