A longitudinal study was undertaken in 1981 to examine the educational and career achievements of 81 individuals who graduated from an Illinois high school in 1981 either as a valedictorian, salutatorian, or top honors student. These individuals completed questionnaires and were given in-depth interviews. One pattern emerged from the data collected: the females in the sample had substantially lower career participation plans than did their male counterparts. Females aspired to graduate study to the same extent as males, and college academic achievement and educational aspirations failed to distinguish male and female high school achievers; however, women in all majors raised concerns about the merging of family and careers even though none of them were engaged or married at the time. Thirty of the 45 women included in the study population did not plan continuous, full-time work, whereas only 3 of the 36 males interviewed did not plan to work full time and on a continuous basis. It was concluded that research classifying women into career salience levels according to their presence in male-dominated college majors must also take into account women's anticipated level of labor force participation. Plans were formulated to follow the effect of career discontinuity on actual professional achievement during the coming years of the longitudinal study. (MN)