(P.L. 94-482) because of that legislation's emphasis on equity issues and because of vocational education's role in preparing young people for the world of work. The training that young people receive is an important determinant of the type of employment subsequently obtained. An improvement in women's labor market experiences implies a change in prior training that is designed to bring greater equity in employment practices. The present study traces the rationale on which the sex equity provisions of the amendments to the Vocational Education Act (VEA) are based and examines the effects of that legislation in terms of personnel roles and responsibilities, fund expenditures, and enrollment trends. In addition, economic consequences of participation in vocational education are discussed from the perspective of sex equity. This analysis is presented as an example of the contribution of policy research to existing knowledge about sex equity policy and practices, as well as the means by which future social policy might be appropriately modified by research results. The passage of the 1976 amendments to the VEA required that recipients of federal funds, for the first time, undertake positive measures to eliminate sex bias, sex stereotyping, and sex discrimination from their vocational education programs (Beuke, Lukas, Brigham, Glick, & Breen, 1980). Previously, the only federal law to address sex equity and vocational education in a substantial way was Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which prohibited sex discrimination in federally aided programs. However, it did not require positive steps either to render programs sex fair or to encourage enrollment in nontraditional programs. The VEA, as amended, is scheduled to expire in September 1984. However, under the Congressional budget law, authorizing committees must finish work on the vocational education legislation by spring 1984 (Vocational Education Act, 1982). Two major approaches to the reauthorization are proposed: (a) leaving the act essentially intact, with some fine tuning for problem areas, and (b) consolidating all set-aside monies into a block grant. Whichever approach is adopted will have serious implications for vocational education's posture with regard to sex equity policies and practices. Two data sources were primarily used in this study: (a) the congressionally mandated study of the effects of P.L. 94-482 by the National Institute of Education (NIE) and its subcontractors, and (b) the analysis of national data bases to examine the labor market effects of vocational ed-