Guidance counselors believe that all students, regardless of sex, race, handicap, or national origin, have an inherent right to make informed career decisions, and to manage their own lives. A variety of barriers sometimes prevent the realization of this ideal for women, minorities, handicapped persons, and ethnic groups. Counselors must address these barriers to occupational equity. These barriers include negative beliefs, cultural blindness, white male standard, occupational stereotypes, limited role models, lack of occupational skills, lack of career management skills, inadequate counselor preparation, weak career guidance programs, little adult guidance, discriminatory employment practices, and biased materials. Activities which may prove useful to address barriers include: (1) increasing counselors' awareness of cultural differences; (2) analyzing enrollment data to identify disproportionate enrollments in vocational programs; (3) ensuring that counselors can communicate with limited-English and hearing-impaired students; (4) training counselors to identify and remedy discriminatory career guidance practices; (5) reviewing career guidance materials for stereotypes; and (6) developing an affirmative action program for employing minority and handicapped counselors. State and federal laws and regulations require districts to implement a combination of career development and career guidance activities to overcome barriers to occupational equity. (A publications list and a resource list are included.) (ABL)