Young women planning their careers should naturally include careful planning of their education in order to facilitate the acheivement of their goals. Choosing the right major is an important part of life planning, and many ambitious women overlook this.
Before choosing a major, make a list of career goals. Don’t list only the types of career you are interested in–in fact, it may be best to leave that part blank for the time being. Instead, list things like whether or not you want to travel, how long you want to be in school, what sort of salary you are willing to consider, and other factors that you know should/must be in place to be happy with your future job.
The most popular careers for women tend to revolve around social interaction and improvement–traditionally, nursing and education have both ranked high. But that is beginning to change as women consider a more varied set of goals. Whereas historically women who were interested in mathematics might gravitate towards education in order to teach math, savvy females today are looking at computer programming jobs and accounting. Both of these fields are traditionally male-dominated, but as women demand more equal treatment in the workplace and are proving to be equally effective, that change sooner than predicted.
If monetary considerations are high on your priority list, choosing a major that will make entering male dominated fields possible is a good place to start. While women often earn less than their male colleagues, women in male dominated fields also often make more than their counterparts in female dominated careers. A female accountant may make less than a male accountant–but she’ll probably make more than a female math teacher.