A FULFILLING CAREER - FACTORS WHICH INFLUENCE WOMENS CHOICE OF PROFESSION

First year university students enrolled on courses which have remained male dominated including engineering, physics and computer science (n = 294) and two courses, law and medicine, an which females now outnum ber males (n = 377), completed a questionnaire concerned with the reas ons why they chose their particular course. Analyses were carried out using a stepwise discriminant function analysis. The results of this s tudy indicate that the reasons women favour law and medicine, rather t han more technological courses, is that the former courses are seen as leading to work that contributes to playing a useful social role and that allows a higher level of social contact. It is concluded that alt hough women tend to avoid technological courses this is not a negative choice, rather they positively choose courses which lead to careers w ith higher levels of social involvement.