Developed and taught during 1979 by facilitators working with groups of community women in central Vermont and in metropolitan Boston, these courses are intended to promote the visibility of women's accomplishments, to enhance women's personal growth, and to increase females' analytic skills in a political context. Each of the nine chapters in the book addresses a topic of importance to women--to rural women in Part I and to urban women in part II--and suggests learning activities. Resources used in the courses are also cited. The courses for rural women discuss work outside the home, health care, parenting, and oral history as a technique for investigating the many contributions made by women. The topics treated in the courses for urban women include black women's culture, the role that oral history and oral tradition play in women's history, the relationship between women's role in society and women's lack of control over their health care, the problems of the Latin people and the devaluation of Latin culture in this country, and ways for women to explore the process of writing. Learning activities involve women in reading and discussing books and journal articles, analyzing films, keeping journals, doing oral history projects, and engaging in group discussions. (RM)