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Women's small share of professional and managerial occupations compared with their share of the total labor force is examined for the 11 largest racial and ethnic minorities in the United States. Gender-related characteristics—women's labor force participation rates, marital status, and the sex ratio—influence women's share of the top jobs, as do class and ethnic variables such as place of birth, population size, and class of worker. Labor market gender inequality is greatest among the smaller, more affluent minorities, many of whom are recent immigrants to this country. The larger, frequently indigenous, minority groups exhibit less of this kind of inequality. Minority and gender status intersect, so that men monopolize surplus resources among the more affluent minority groups and use these resources to secure a more advantaged labor market position.

This report describes the educational, occupational, and familial behavior a panel of sixty-four women exhibited during the first seven yearsfollowing their college graduation. Their career patterns are compared with the aspirations they held as seniors in college. The findings reveal high consistency between senior aspirations and actual behavior on some items, e.g., mariage and graduate school, but less consistency on others, including occupational choice. Generally the women worked more often and had children less frequently than they had anticipated. The actual life style patterns of these women and their aspirations for the future result from the fact that women pursue a contingency strategy in organizing their adult lives.