A study examined the effects of maternal employment status and a series of intrafamilial variables on the career orientation of adolescent females and on their attitudes toward working mothers. The Career Orientation Scale (COS), a researcher-developer scale designed to measure the extent to which work is viewed as central to the female adolescent's future adult role, was administered to 246 Caucasian female high school students in grades 11 and 12 at two Westchester public high schools. All subjects came from intact, middle-to-upper-socioeconomic-level families. The COS was based on four variables related to women's work patterns: marital status, presence and age of children, number of children, and adequacy of husband's salary. In addition, an Adolescent Intrafamilial Perception Questionnaire assessed maternal power within the family, division of labor within the family, maternal attitude toward her employment status, adolescent satisfaction with mothering received, and paternal attitudes toward working women. Paternal attitudes toward working women was the most potent variable in terms of both significance and meaningfulness in predicting female adolescent career orientation and attitudes toward working mothers. This supports the need for future multidimensional research in the area of maternal employment and career orientation. (MN)