The gap in literacy rates between women and men continually broadens. In 1985, 63 percent of the world's approximately 1,000 million illiterate people were female, compared to 60 percent in 1970 and 58 percent in 1960. A process of social change, including community involvement and mobilization in favor of women's literacy, is needed to sustain participation and overcome male resistance. Literacy programs seldom adapt to the real learning conditions of women, and special provisions for facilitating women's full participation are seldom provided. Women's motivation for becoming literate typically includes the desire to: (1) help their children study; (2) acquire more self-reliance and control over their personal life; (3) liberate themselves from isolation and absolute submission to received authority; and (4) participate in society in the same way men do. These are among the constraints on women's participation in education: lack of time because of family duties, lack of concentration because they must bring their young children with them to class, lack of exposure to anything but their mother tongue, discouragement because of the nonsupport of men, and lack of reading materials once they have learned to read. Programs that integrate literacy classes into activities such as health care and income generation for women usually reinforce women's reproductive and subordinate roles. Only national mass literacy campaigns (in such countries as Cuba, Nicaragua, Vietnam, Angola, and Ethiopia) have successfully mobilized and taught hundreds of thousands of illiterate women and men. Their teaching methods were traditional, but their content focused on national issues. The degree of female participation depended on community attitudes. Local (not those from the middle class) female teachers have been the most successful at encouraging participation. (CML)