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The study produced the following recommendations :
Match Educational Activities with Market Demand.
Ensure that educational activities better match the learning needs of women in
the area. Computer training, stress management, assertiveness training, and
financial management are preferred.
Improve Access to Education.
Provide part-time
courses at convenient times. Women must balance home responsibilities with
educational pursuits.
Improve Communication Channels.
Organizations
offering educational programs should advertise or otherwise provide
information. Two possibilities would be to conduct an adult education
information day for women in the various regions and to establish contact
people throughout the island who will provide information on a regular basis
and deal with immediate local problems.
Develop Innovative Learning Programs
Two options are
available to alleviate the isolation of women in Cape Breton. Distance and open
learning programs would make learning more accessible and flexible. The
development of a community orientation and the delivery of education through
workshops and seminars throughout the island.
Provide Daycare Facilities.
Home and family
responsibilities conflict with the demands of educational advancement.
Provision of daycare facilities and improved access to programs as mentioned
earlier would assist and encourage women to pursue educational advancement.
Government Must Fund Education for Women
Government
financial assistance is needed to enable women in this economically depressed
area to pursue higher education. The potential for an improved standard of
living achieved through educational advancement by Cape Breton women depends on
the removal of barriers.
Jody Ann Manley has an M.A. in Industrial Relations from
Queen's University. She is teaching at the University of Cape Breton where she
is researching the labor relations climate in Cape Breton and will soon be
completing a case study on the coal strike in Cape Breton Mines of 1981.
Special thanks go to Kurt Maxwell and Leslie Shanahan for their
invaluable research assistance.
NOTES
- Women in Canada: A Statistical Report. March 1985,
Minister of Supply and Services Canada.
- The questionnaire used in this study was borrowed from a
1984 study which examined the learning needs of women in rural Nova Scotia.
Unfortunately, Cape Breton Island, which represents 20 per cent of the Nova
Scotia population, was excluded.
- A copy of the original report A Survey of Women's
Learning Needs: A Profile of Cape Breton Women can be obtained by writing
to:
Jody Ann Manley
Assistant Professor of Business
University College of Cape Breton
P.O. Box 5300
Sydney, Nova
Scotia
B1P 6L2
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SOMMAIRE
L'éducation des femmes du Cap
Breton
par Jody Ann Manley
Au cours de
l'été 1986, Jody Ann Manley, professeure-assistante de gestion
des affaires au University Collage du Cap Breton, interrogea 200 femmes de la
région sur l'éducation permanente et sur leurs attitudes
vis-à-vis d'elle. On voulait par cette enquête déceler les
obstacles que les femmes ont à surmonter pour poursuivre leurs
études. On avait en particulier besoin de renseignements pour trouver un
moyen de combler le fossé existant entre les succès
remportés au niveau éducationnel par les femmes et par les
hommes.
L'enquête révéla que
les femmes avaient que peu d'argent pour leur éducation, qu'elles
avaient besoin de cours à mi-temps, dispensés à des heures
convenables. Beaucoup de femmes ont fait remarquer qu'il leur fallait tenir
compte de leurs responsabilités familiales et professionnelles pour
pouvoir prendre des cours. D'autres ont mentionné qu'il n'y avait pas
suffisamment de renseignements sur les cours existants. D'autres encore ont dit
qu'elles participeraient volontiers à des cours
télévisés. L'auteure termine en recommandant à ceux
qui s'occupent de fournir des services éducationnels dans l'île du
Cap Breton quelques moyens d'éliminer, par le biais de
l'éducation, les barrières qui empêchent les femmes
d'être égales. |
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