From first to second year was a huge shift. First year was overly general and course material was limited to the literary standards. The class was large in number and the breakdown was almost 50:50 men to women. Second year classes were smaller, but most significant was the dramatic drop in the number of male students. The majority of students in English courses are women yet the majority of professors are men. Can a male professor effectively capture and maintain the interest of a class full of women?

If the job is done well, a professor creates an atmosphere for discussion, contemplation and learning through the medium of literature. One way to approach this task is to change the way literature is presented. In Women's Studies programs, "students stres[s] the wonderful encouragement they receiv[e] from their female professors and greater understanding they experienc[e] with their peers."¹ Can this sense of validation be created in other areas of study? I believe it can and has begun to show up in areas of the English program at Western.

In the Medieval Literature course I took in my third year my professor made an effort to point out strong female characters to the class, which countered those created in a more misogynist vein. While studying Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, Dr. Watson stressed to us the importance of seeing ambiguity in the poem, opening it to many possible readings. I felt my ideas were treated with respect and that if I could make a strong argument with adequate evidence to support my thesis, I would not be told I was wrong. Dr. Watson also gave us examples of women's writing from the period, and after teaching this course went on to teach a special topics course on medieval women's writing.

In that same academic year I completed two courses taught by a professor who was cross-appointed to both the English and the Women's Studies department. After these courses my frame of mind was never quite the same. Dr. Kathleen Fraser presented literature in a way I had not yet experienced. Half of the required reading in Canadian Drama was written by women playwrights and a portion of the course was spent discussing Native theatre. Not only did I read some excellent plays, but I was introduced to areas of theatre I would not otherwise have known.

Following Canadian Drama I chose to take an new special topics course introduced to the English department by Dr. Fraser and entitled "Native Literature." Some students were Native but most were not. By the end of the course I realized that the importance of studying the literature of marginalized groups, such as women and Native people, is that they often use literature and theatre ''as a tool to push ideas forward."² To these previously unrepresented groups words are like medicine to age-old wounds; we need to construct our own identities and replace the old imposed ideas with new ones. So I, as a writer, "have to find my own colors and mix my own paint."³ Changes like the ones I have described in the English program have allowed me to push my own ideas forward.

In my last year, I came to realize and appreciate many things. Before my third year my future career plans were by no means clear. As a kid I had always loved to write but until fourth year I assumed I would have to stand in line for teacher's college with other women who had graduated with Honors English degrees. Not until I discovered the numbers of women who did write-plays, poetry, short fiction and novels-did I feel as though wanting to write was a legitimate desire and a possible career. As third year came to an end I was beginning to lean in that direction and fourth year confirmed the plan.