Many centres would have a wide assortment of posters on the wall and would look like a comfortable place to be, with a coffee pot and soft chairs. Often though there will be more men than woman 'hanging around'; some women learners might not feel at ease or safe from teasing or from harassment. Although there would be a wide variety of books in many programmes, others would have mostly commercial books which do not often show the realities of working-class women's lives. Many publications would show women in traditional roles. Materials written by women learners from Canada, the USA, England and Australia are better at showing the differences and similarities in their diverse experiences, but these are still few in number.

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Does learner-centred mean women's needs will be met?

One way which adult education programmes have sought to recognise the inadequacy of a predefined curriculum, which may not be appropriate for all, or even any, learners, has been to structure individual or group sessions around the interests and 'needs' the learners' identify. Many literacy programmes similarly seek to be 'learner-centred' by acknowledging that learners are adults, and placing their lives and their interests at the heart of the learning process. This approach focuses on learners as individuals. It might be assumed that this would avoid many of the problems identified by writers who are critical of the aims of literacy programmes for women. However, in the attempt to meet individual needs, little space is left for thinking of particular groups of learners such as women (or any other grouping such as people of colour, or people with disabilities) as having needs as a group. Little attention has also been paid to the idea that what might benefit some learners may not benefit others. For example, if women want a women's group but men do not want to be in a group alone, which group should a learner-centred worker listen to?

During the first stage of a research project on women and literacy one literacy worker said:

...women need a women-only support group because they need a safe space. Men don't support each other. So a men-only support group is a contradiction. Women support men. So a mixed group is a men's support group. (Lloyd 1991: 41)

In one attempt to create a 'woman-positive' project in the next stage of the research, a mixed group of literacy learners were asked whether they wanted to divide into separate men's and women's groups. A few vocal men spoke out against dividing up, and some women supported them. Women who might have felt safer in a women-only group were probably the least likely to speak out. So the assumption that a programme is learner-centred can lead programme workers away from noticing and exploring the ways in which different needs may conflict.

In the same study, another literacy worker reported that the establishment of a women's group as her agency's 'woman-positive activity' helped her to see the ways in which an otherwise excellent learner-centred programme might not be meeting women's needs as well as she had assumed. She was surprised to find just how important this gathering was in helping members to feel less isolated and valued: not only the women learners, but herself and other staff. She said: