Alternately, women can seek information services from the automated information systems available through kiosks. This option requires substantial computer and reading literacy levels (Critoph, 2003). Gender relations, like all social relations, are multi-stranded: they embody ideas, values and identities; they allocate labor between different tasks, activities and domains; they determine the distribution of resources; and they assign authority, agency and decision-making power. This means that gender disparities are multi-dimensional and cannot be compacted simply to the question of material or ideological restriction. It also proposes that these relationships are not always internally unified. They may surround contradictions and imbalances, particularly when there have been changes in the broader socio-economic environment. Some policy makers, advocates and researchers in the region identify the need to reflect on and integrate social and gender equity, predominantly as it relates to participation, inclusion and exclusion, decision making and power relations (Vernooy and Fajber, n.d.).

Apparently set up to operate on principles of cooperation, such groups are meant to engage and benefit all sections of the community. Yet successfully they can exclude...

These participatory eliminations that are exclusions within seemingly participatory institutions, make up more than a time-lag effect. Rather, they stem from systemic factors and can, in turn, adversely affect both equity and institutional efficiency (Vernooy and Fajber, n.d.).
References

Critoph, Ursule. (2003). "Who wins, who loses: The real story of the transfer of training to the provinces and its impact on women."

In Cohen, M. Training the excluded for work.

Vancouver: UBC Press.

Fenwick, Tara. (2006). Control, Contradiction and Ambivalence: Skill Initiatives in Canada.

Retrieved August 29, 2010, from Web site:

http://www.ualberta.ca/~tfenwick/publications/PDF/CASAE.pdf

Probert, B. (1999). "Gendered workers and gendered work: Implications for women's learning."

In Boud, D. & Garrick, J. Understanding learning at work. London: Routledge.

Vernooy, Ronnie and Fajber, Liz. (n.d.). Integrating social and gender analysis into natural resource management research. Retrieved August 29, 2010, from The International

Development Research Center Web site: http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-93074-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html