Young women now have more freedom to shape themselves than young women anywhere or at any time in history. In counseling women for dual-career families the real and imagined difficulties must be addressed and their courage and self-conviction strengthened, not undermined. Especially crucial to the counseling process with these women is an understanding of traditional and emergent views of gender and gender roles that directly pertain to the dual-career family patterns. Gender extends beyond the individual and operates in the structures of society as well as in the dynamics of work and family relationships. Gender-related internal factors such as assumptions of female dependency and nurturance and male superiority and privilege, and external factors such as homophobia, sexual discrimination, and sexual harassment influence the explicit and implicit choices made by women who enter into dual-career relationships. Gender processes are influential in women's career development irrespective of an individual woman's sexual orientation. Yet these perspectives necessarily differ for lesbian and heterosexual women in dual-career families because of the structural differences associated with the gender of their respective partners. Those counselors who conduct career counseling for women wanting careers and family life are engaging in an exciting and complex process that, done well, can enhance the lives of the women and men they counsel as well as their own lives as individuals and as members of a changing society. (ABL)