Rural American women number well over 25 million and represent all socio-economic and ethnic classifications, yet they share a conservative orientation towards sex roles and appropriate life styles, characteristic social and geographic isolation, and the dilemma of how to manage the traditional demands of rural culture and the contemporary pressures to enter the labor force. Rural women of all ages need locally available educational services including intensive literacy programs, job preparation programs (especially focusing on small business entreprenurial skills), and programs focusing on their rural values and heritage. They also need career planning to help with skills identification and development, and sensitive counseling regarding their problems Once trained, rural women need expanded and improved employment opportunities. The forceful implementation of existing federal policy could offset sex discrimination in public employment. Local education programs could help private employers reconsider their discriminatory practices. Finally, rural women need access to services, or to information and training that will help compensate for the lack of services. Federal policy can help by providing research on rural women, good educational programs based on rural strengths and values, and independent funding of rural and metropolitan programs. (SB)