This article uses evidence from 269 interviews in five companies to consider whether (i) equal opportunity laws, policies and practices, (ii) more women gaining post‐entry professional qualifications, establishing themselves on the lower rungs of hitherto male careers, and working full‐time, combined with (iii) projected skill shortages, are likely to break down gender segmentation and lead to greater equality in employment during the 1990s. The evidence suggests that even females who start strongly and appear potential high‐fliers are still being obstructed by harsh, in some respects, and in other ways patronizing, workplace cultures, coupled with demands for career commitment that are incompatible with the domestic responsibilities which it is assumed women will adopt, and which the majority are in fact still adopting at least at certain stages during their working lives. The effects in the companies studied were to deflect women out of mainstream careers into peripheral occupations, or into peripheral jobs within skilled mainstream occupations. In these companies neither the men nor the exceptional women who were succeeding appeared a likely source of pressure for change, and male domination remained fully compatible with the firms' preferred skill formation strat