The experiences of Canadian women in adult basic education and literacy (ABEL) were examined in a national research project during which 2 contact women from each of 12 ABEL programs across Canada spend one-half day each week "researching" their program's "woman-positive" activities and the consequences of those activities for staff, students, and their program as a whole. The 24 women spent their project time reflecting on their programs alone and with others, writing journals that were eventually sent to the project's coordinating researchers, and developing documentation of the personal, professional, political, and structural changes observed in their ABEL programs during the year-long research project. The 24 women represented a wide range of age groups (23-56 years old), educational levels (grade 12 to a postgraduate degree), and years of experience in adult basic education and literacy (1-20 years). The research revealed the diverse experiences of women in different ABEL programs in different parts of Canada, emphasized the difficulties in focusing attention on members of marginalized groups, highlighted the lack of information about literacy workers in Canada, and provided a model for program-based action research beginning with frontline workers' experiences. (Approximately 50% of this document is devoted to descriptions of the 12 programs studied. Contains 77 references.) (MN)