▼ Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT; Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994) delineates the ways in which social forces may influence women’s career development and create gender segregation in different types of occupations (see Betz, 2007 for a review). However, a number of questions remain, specifically in regards to how social forces may shape the core cognitive variables of the model, namely self efficacy and outcome expectations. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to further examine precursors to these variables and the role of gender within the career development process. To accomplish these aims, a survey of 390 college women was conducted. While not all hypotheses were supported, a number of key findings emerged. First, vicarious learning continued to underperform in terms of predicting self efficacy and outcome expectations. Second, the data supported the overarching SCCT model, particularly core components delineating the development of career related self efficacy and outcome expectations through learning experiences. Third, gender role norm conformity showed promise as a distal predictor of career related learning experiences. Only some of the observed relationships between the conformity and learning experience variables were borne out as expected. However, some interesting findings emerged which may be in line with existing and emerging gender-related theories. These findings are discussed within the larger frameworks of career development and gender theory and implications for research and practice are discussed. Advisors/Committee Members: Subich, Linda.