This document is a "methodological annex" to volume I of the Women in Science and Technology in Australia (WISTA) final research report. The 10 discussion papers that make up this document deal with the 10 core factors of influence that formed one main axis of the study's theoretical framework for inquiry. A diagram illustrates this framework. The discussion papers were used to focus and encourage feedback from academic staff in the leadership of the scientific and technological disciplines surveyed in the WISTA project. The project tested knowledge and attitudes and sought informed opinions on needs and priorities by circulating a discussion paper for each of the 10 factors. The 10 core factors were then related to four concepts: (1) institutional ecology; (2) critical mass; (3) the perceived masculinity or femininity of disciplines; and (4) the constructed style and content of scientific and technological disciplines. The 10 factors and papers concern: (1) same sex role models as a positive factor of influence for women; (2) the mentor process, potentially negative or positive; (3) the image of different branches of science and technology (male, female, or sex neutral; socially responsible or systems and machine oriented); (4) male attitudes to females in nontraditional disciplines; female attitudes (self-esteem, or towards peers); (5) single-sex versus coeducation as positive or negative influences; (6) prerequisites and school patterns of curricular choices as critical filters; (7) mathematics as a negative critical filter; (8) careers education and vocational counseling as positive or negative influences; (9) women's support networks as positive influences; and (10) affirmative action projects in science and technology as positive influences. (DK)