Women and MSL
As a result of the awareness of barriers faced by women who participate in literacy programs, we took the initiative to speak with some of the women students and tutors in our program in an effort to give voice to their learning experiences. The remainder of this article focuses on the conversations we had.

Social Disorganization
Many of the women in our program described themselves as feeling "shy" when they interacted with other people, both in the public and the private spheres. Horsman suggests that when women describe themselves as "shy" they are describing a kind of silence. These female literacy students have been silenced at school and at home through threats or violence. Such interactions with authority figures have defined and negated them: to describe women as "shy" focuses attention on women's lack of assertiveness rather than on the situations and authority structures which silence them (9).

When asked "Has the idea that you can't read affected the way you live?" Bonnie, a machine operator who completed grade four in Jamaica and who is the mother of four, spoke about being very quiet and removed from her children at times (10). She believes that this is because she is unhappy with herself due to the fact that she can't read and write. The social organization of her own home growing up has contributed to Bonnie's loneliness, "shyness" and distance from her own children. As the eldest of eleven children, Bonnie was kept at home to help with the work of the household. She mentioned at length the bitter feelings she had towards her mother who never provided her with the opportunity to go to school, unlike her younger brothers and sisters.

Sonia, a Greek woman who was orphaned as a young child and who is now the mother of three grown men, had a terrible first learning experience. Because she had no parents to enter her into a formal schooling program, she was tutored by a friend of the family. This man labeled her "retarded" and "stupid" and hit her when she failed to produce the correct answers to his questions.

Sonia expressed feelings of defeat and "shyness" in her everyday life. She explained that she feels timid because she is unable to comfortably express herself among family, friends and community members. She was extremely nervous about the idea of starting to learn again, as she had internalized the idea that she was unable to learn. The tutoring experience has served as an extremely empowering activity and Sonia is already, after five months, feeling better about her learning capabilities and her own self-image.

Edna, a Jamaican woman who is a sample maker for a clothing designer, feels the strains of being a single mother of a rebellious seventeen-year-old son. The responsibilities and worries that flow from this relationship make it difficult for Edna to concentrate on her literacy lessons. She finds it hard to schedule regular meetings with her tutor and often becomes discouraged when she is unable to keep up consistently with her work.

Social Connections
There is a definite need for women to have social contact with other women in their literacy learning. Such contact allows women to engage in critical discussions which helps them challenge the social organization of their lives. Horsman advocates that "when literacy programs seek to enhance the social aspects of the program, and strengthen and expand the possibilities for meaningful interaction between students, they help to create a space for discourse which include women's shared realities" (11). MSL makes a point of stressing the integration of "work" and "social" time in tutoring relationships. This approach draws the focus of learning away from an individual act and supports a philosophy of education which is more social in nature.