Although research on and models of career patterns often are implicitly assumed to be of general validity, they are usually coloured by their cultural, ethnical, and historical background and - until recently - by a lack of gender perpective. A review of research on women and career development (Philips & Imhoff, 1997) concluded that research in the recent decade took important steps but that critical gaps still remain. One such gap concerns changes and transitions in women's careers. The general aim of this paper is to describe career patterns over the life course of women born in the 1950s - in terms of shape, level, and stability. Data were taken from work histories in the interviews of a sample of Swedish women aged 43 (n=109) as part of a longitudinal study. Career patterns were plotted based on life events related to education, family, and work. Results revealed relative stability of labour force participation, but not of work hours over the life course. Career progress in terms of moving to higher career levels was a common feature of the cohort. However, continuous full-time work (from 16 until 43) was highly unusual and almost entirely limited to women with no children.