This same doctor later prescribed her with sleeping pills, which proved to be the least suitable medication for her needs. Bonnie felt unable to challenge the medical authorities but was also dissatisfied with the lack of control over her own body and her own life.

However, it is a mistaken assumption that women like Bonnie are completely without resources. When she was first interviewed by MSL, Bonnie described an empowering exercise she had created for herself. Over the last few years she had been keeping a tape of all of her different experiences, both positive and negative. She explained how she found this a therapeutic way in which to work through her emotions and to evaluate the direction of her life. She expressed an eagerness to transcribe these tapes into a written journal so that she could refer to them whenever she needed, and so that she could improve her skills of written expression.

MSL has also initiated an annual awards banquet to help build confidence in the students and their achievements. At this banquet, each student is presented with a certificate and their tutors are encouraged to describe how their learning has improved and in what capacity. The event also provides students with an opportunity to speak their minds and share their feelings about their tutoring experiences.

Challenges for the Future
As a result of our feminist assessment of MSL, we have concluded that the challenge which lies ahead for literacy workers is to find meeting points between feminism and literacy. This connection will be most satisfying if it is developed as a reciprocal relationship. Such a relationship will help us move our understanding of women and literacy full circle from that of the "us/ them" paradigm to the development of community and dialogue.

Similarly, as university students across Canada start to fuel an exciting and innovative campus-based literacy movement (13), it is important for all emerging groups to build woman-positive programming into their tutor training and program delivery. Through our experiences with MSL, we have discovered that students are politically and socially committed to making a difference to their society and to promoting literacy as a fundamental human right. Voicing the experiences of the women we have worked with at MSL is our contribution to both the literacy movement and the feminist process.

Lynda Stokes was actively involved with McGill Students for Literacy from 1990-93 as a tutor and as the Outreach Coordinator. She is currently studying law at the University of Alberta and has used her experience with MSL to help initiate a similar student-run program.

Stephanie Garrow was actively involved in the evolution of McGill Students for Literacy from 1990-93, as a tutor and as the Coordinator of the organization. She is currently the Canadian Program Officer at World Literacy of Canada, a non-profit voluntary organization that works to promote adult literacy, raise public awareness and fund programs in Canada and throughout the world.

1. CCLOW pamphlet, "Let's Talk about Women and Literacy," 1989; and Statistics Canada, Adult Literacy in Canada: Results of a National Study.
2. Dana Beckelman, "Defining a Feminist Literacy," Canadian Woman Studies, 9 (3&4), p.132.
3. Jennifer Horsman, Something in My Mind Besides the Everyday: Women and Literacy. Toronto, 1990, p.124.
4. Horsman, p.86.
5. Kathleen Rockhill, "The Other City... Where No One Reads," Canadian Woman Studies, 9 (3&4), p.7.
6. Horsman, p.86.
7. CCLOW pamphlet.
8. Horsman, p.86.
9. Horsman, p.79.
10. Please note that names of students have been changed to respect their right to privacy.
11. Jennifer Horsman, "The Social Dimensions of Literacy," Canadian Woman Studies, 9 (3&4), p.81.
12. Ibid.
13. Frontier College, a Canada-wide, volunteer based literacy organization, has developed in the last two years a program to bring Canadian university students to the forefront of the literacy movement. Frontier College: Students for Literacy aims to set up student-run literacy programs on university and college campuses across the country.