What have the universities done to address the needs of rural women? Very little. A handful of institutions have made women's studies courses available to isolated non-urban students. In British Columbia, Simon Fraser University offers women's studies courses by correspondence, as does Athabasca University in Alberta. Carleton University has developed a "talking head" video version of an introductory course in women's studies. In Newfoundland, Memorial University has offered women's studies through a combination of print, video, and teleconferencing. Some other universities have sporadically made women's studies courses available off-campus.

There are, however, serious discrepancies between distance education technology and the objectives of women's studies courses. The development of the capacity to transmit information to remote locations has revolutionized post-secondary education and made it available to people who previously had no access to university courses. What it does not permit, without significant modification, is the collaboration of the students in the learning process as equal partners with each other and the instructor.

Women in the fields, 1916. Provincial Archives of Manitoba

The print medium is, of course, fundamental to any academic course. Reading is a vital part of developing the cognitive framework within which one's personal experience assumes meaning. Video presentation can be a stimulating way to transmit information and challenge patterns of thinking. What neither of these technologies permit is interaction; they cannot be made responsive. Consequently, they reinforce the old learning hierarchies: "I must learn what the experts say about my experience" is only a small step forward from "My experience is not valid here." This "banking" methodology whereby information is deposited by the teacher into the essentially passive learners is completely incompatible with feminist pedagogy. A further difficulty with the distance delivery of women's studies courses is the lack of any provision for the affective impact of the material and its relation to personal experience. Eruptions of pain, anger, and grief are a common inevitable component of women's studies. Women must be permitted to process the re-discovery of their suppressed experience and to deal with the emotive explosion this often produces. Anger and pain are unlikely to be converted into constructive energy when they are confronted alone. Women experiencing emotional release in a supportive group of their peers feel cleansed and strengthened by the experience. Women facing pain alone will avoid it, and turn their anger against themselves.