Because some rural women underutilize their increased schooling while others are disadvantaged by low educational attainment and underdeveloped skills, and in order to help determine policy alternatives to meet rural women's educational needs, the educational attainments and labor force participation of rural white and minority women were studied. In 1975, white nonmetropolitan women completed an average of 12.2 years of school as compared to 8.9 years for black and 7.7 years for hispanic nonmetropolitan women. Very few white women but 19% of the black women and 31.1% of the hispanic women were functionally illiterate. As did their labor force sisters, non-labor force white women averaged a high school education and were consistently better educated than non-labor force white men. White women in the labor force apparently underutilized their education, entering the lower paying, lower skilled positions. In contrast, greater educational attainment appeared to pay off in greater labor force participation for black women, who were nonetheless low on the scale of economic payoffs (perhaps reflecting the triple disadvantage facing rural minority women). Career and vocational education, guidance counseling, education of the disadvantaged, education of farm women, and improved socio-economic conditions can help ensure full usage of rural women's educational attainments. (SB)