The underrepresentation of women in engineering typically is explained by gender differences in occupational interests, attitudes, or abilities. This paper examines the gender differences hypothesis as well as anticipated role conflicts of women and men students. We explore the academic, career, and family attitudes and expectations of women and men majoring in engineering. Men and women are remarkably similar in their abilities, academic experiences, and career influences. Women, however, are more likely to anticipate that lack of confidence in their own abilities and conflicts between work and family responsibilities will be barriers to success in their careers. These differences, along with several differences in orientations toward family roles, suggest that a role conflict argument better accounts for the disparity in the career development of men and women engineers. Suggestions for addressing these role conflicts before women begin working as engineers are provided. I. INTRODUCTIONDespite the increase in the number of women receiving an engineering degree, women still represent less than 8 percent of employed engineers.1 Although the number is increasing, approximately 16 percent of bachelor's degrees in engineering are awarded to women (compared to 10 percent in 1981).2,3 In addition to concerns for women not entering engineering, researchers find that women and men engineers experience disparate career development. For example, women engineers earn less, hold less prestigious jobs, have less supervisory responsibility, and are more likely to be in certain specialties than their male counterparts. 4,5 Many of the programs designed to address the scarcity of women in engineering focus on reducing academic barriers for women by encouraging the pursuit of mathematics and science. Some programs emphasize the relevance of technical fields by increasing girls' exposure to these areas. Other efforts focus on retention, targeting women who are already in engineering programs. These latter programs emphasize faculty sensitivity, learning environments, and learning styles.6-8 These intervention programs are predicated on the assumption that gender differences in exposure/experience, interests, abilities, and attitudes discourage girls and young women from pursuing and remaining in careers in science and technology.Our literature review reveals considerable research support for gender differences in the educational experiences, occupational interests, and perhaps the skills of pre-college men and women. However, this explanation may not account for differences in the college and professional experiences of women and men enrolled in engineering programs because women undergraduates in engineering already have overcome many of the gender differences described in the literature.Instead, anticipation of future role conflict in balancing work and family roles may present a greater barrier to women and steer them away from engineering in general or toward jobs in certain areas of engineering which may be less pres...

Although the early vocational educators were committed to social change, they inadvertently reinforced differences between social groups. Counselors today have a unique opportunity to effect social change. Demographic shifts suggest t h a t minorities who are educationally and occupationally prepared will face fewer racial barriers in the future labor market. To prepare minority students to take advantage of anticipated demographic shifts, counselors will need to avoid the same inadvertent mistakes made by their predecessors. To accomplish this, counselors can recommit to career education and counseling, ensure equal access to their services, and alter the context of their interventions.

This article is a data-based case study of the renewal of an undergraduate psychology program. We describe the varieties of faculty and student expectations for the major and their evaluations of the curriculum. Students' career interests and their individual differences based on gender, race, and grade point average were important factors in the changes that were made in course requirements and department services. Based on our experience, we suggest a set of questions and resources that other departments might use in evaluating their undergraduate programs.

In writing this review, we asked ourselves what novel cut of the 1989 career literature we might make. Several earlier reviews were cleverly organized using the structure inherent in the research and theoretical literature published during the review period (Fitzgerald & Rounds, 1989;Savickas, 1989a). Other reviews selected articles for inclusion based on methodological rigor, author preference, or preponderance in number. We believed that it was possible to organize a selective review based upon counselor practice and to highlight any discrepancies between what counselors actually do and the topical coverage in the career literature.Thus, our organization reflects our belief that an analysis of counselor practices would produce a different representation of the state of our field than would the standard literary analysis. The title also underscores Myers's (1986) assertion that advances in career counseling sometimes proceed from the practitioner to the researcher or Arnold R.

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