Ayisi's observation that "New laws have not changed most men's attitudes" is a truism for both continents. The educational limitations for a large number of North American women is similar to that of their African counterparts, the difference being that, in Canada, the issue is not addressed as openly, nor male privilege expressed as honestly.

My premise is that education in general, and literacy in particular, are gender issues. Mary O'Brien has said that "The notion of education as an objective uncovering of the truth and a subjective passing-on of knowledge obscures the fact that truth and knowledge are socially-defined and legitimated"². Yes, white middle-class males are the authors of what is considered genuine knowledge for everyone- including women.

Many men find education for women -and educated women- intimidating. Some "empowered" males-urban, mostly white and frequently left of centre-have adopted the correct jargon. But rather than examining what men say, it is far more insightful to scrutinize what they do. Are the words and actions consistent? A few-alas, very few- men have been able to set aside their individual economic, social, and political gains and are able to meet women as equals. But what about their brothers?

Why do we speak of men who get up with baby in the middle of the night in awed tones? Why do we praise as outstanding men who do a comparable part of the housework? Housework, like parenting, only rates comment when women choose not to do it; it becomes a focus of conversation when men do. Similarly, in China men who carry the baby on walks or cook for company -the Middle Kingdom version of the backyard barbecue phenomenon-are regarded as model husbands. This is not to suggest that the important household tasks have been usurped; Chinese women still wash the floors and clean the toilets. Meulenbelt et al. offer a fair and equitable methodology for dealing with male enlightenment.

They suggest that this behaviour should be treated as normal, rather than held up as exceptional: "[Men] should behave as our equals, without the need for any 'applause' for being special"³.

Leaving the often questionable-usually verbal to the point of nausea-support of the liberated urban male masses, it is time to shift our concentration to their rural counterpart: male farmers in the south and male trappers in the north. Having been raised in Mudhole (my generic name for small town Saskatchewan) I remember being told that women did not need a lot of education. We would just get married anyway. Isn't that simply another form-albeit the Canadian variety-of hedging one's educational investments and keeping down the bride price?

Working in the bank, or as a secretary at the town office were held up as desirable aspirations for the seriously career-minded woman. However, married women who continued to work, especially if they had children, were thought to be negligent wives and mothers. And that, as anyone who has ever lived in a small town can attest, is a cardinal sin. The only allowance made was for widows; they were allowed to work outside as well as inside the home. Besides, it kept them from being supported by the provincial welfare system, which was in turn supported by male taxpayers' dollars. Divorced women, from my recollections, did not venture into Mudhole, Saskatchewan in the 1960s, so we can't count them.

Teachers, peers and teen magazines all counselled that girls should allow-in fact encourage-boys to think that males are (a) smarter and (b) better at sports. Failure to comply with this social law resulted in a girl not being asked out. Such folly could leave her dateless for graduation, or-horror of horror-render her a spinster. And, while I can laugh at it now because it is so far removed from my life, the situation has not REALLY changed. Have you sat on coffee row in a small town recently?

Have you heard what the high school girls are saying? Rural women are working off the farm often to support-not supplement-the family income, yet teenage girls insist that they will "work for a while until they get married." Yes, things do stay the same in spite of the . women's movement-and rural men are often committed to seeing that they do. For anyone who remains unconvinced, I am prepared to arrange a tour of small town cafes and high schools. We can start in Wishart ... or Melville ... or Ponteix.