Clearly there is a danger that programming which builds on women's desire to improve their literacy skills for the sake of their children can reinforce the feeling many women already have that their own needs are not a priority, that their focus should be their children. The programmes can also contribute to a frame of mind which blames women rather than making visible the practical constraints which shape many poor women's mothering.

_____________________________________________________________________

For you to do:

Look at the Coors advertisement below, which appeared in Vogue in 1990. Jot down all the assumptions about illiteracy you can see in this ad, look at both the wording and the image. What is your reaction to this?

*1990 COORS AD AS SEPARATE PAGE

Comments

You might, like me, be irritated with the commonly used metaphor of illiteracy as a disease. Certainly as the metaphor is developed, suggesting that illiteracy is a contagious disease spreading from women to children, it demonises the illiterate and illiteracy. Should we be afraid of people who don't read and write well? Can anyone catch it? The ad also blames the victims. It suggests that women are to blame for their illiteracy and then for 'spreading' it to their children. If illiteracy is 'spreading', shouldn't we ask why? Shouldn't we wonder about the class, race and gender biases of the school system if more people are becoming illiterate? Alternatively, if so many people are illiterate, why isn't society organised in such a way that it isn't a problem?

Why are mothers being blamed for their children's illiteracy and not fathers, or even the school system? The women and children are all shown with no faces. What is the message?, that you are less than a person without literacy?, that you are stupid if you are illiterate?

______________________________________________________________

Why is literacy a threat to men's power?

Many women writers have observed that when women seek to improve their literacy skills, men in their lives may not be supportive. This can range from unwillingness to 'babysit' to outright violence. This means that the barriers to taking on a course may include not only the time and energy which care of children takes, especially when they are assumed to be women's total or at least primary responsibility, but also men's resistance to women studying. When I interviewed women in Nova Scotia, Jill spoke of these barriers: