The political interests and educational orientations that adult education advocates who work on behalf of welfare recipients have about welfare-to-work programs influence the strategies they use to advance poor women's education. Adult Basic Education (ABE) providers face many conflicts as they engage in implementing programs under welfare reform, including an emphasis on job preparation versus adult education for individual development or for social change, and the question of whether programs should be learner-focused or agency-focused. In order to increase understanding of how advocates for women's education in San Francisco dealt with these kinds of conflicts, approximately 7 female representatives from various constituencies, as well as 3 female welfare recipients, were interviewed. A feminist methodology of qualitative inquiry was used to analyze the results. The advocacy strategies of the advocacy community varied. An ABE in-take counselor who focused on women as learners was not interested in the desires of the Department of Human Services (DHS), while a workforce education administrator who worked cooperatively with DHS to establish vocational training for women was interested. All of the advocates worked around limitations of welfare policy to help clients, but differing justifications and actions highlight power issues. Further research into how power is constructed by advocates and how it might be best used to benefit welfare mothers with low skills would be helpful. (Contains 8 references.) (MO)