Governor Spitzer is facing what opponents of welfare expansion are calling a major test of his commitment to preserving the decade-old changes to the state’s public assistance program, which they say brought about a dramatic reduction in welfare rolls in New York.

Mr. Spitzer has a deadline of today to sign or veto a bill that would change the priorities of welfare offices by strongly encouraging female welfare recipients to shoot for higher-paying jobs in traditionally male-dominated fields instead of taking jobs that are more readily available.

Supporters of the bill, which passed both the Republican-led Senate and the Democratic-led Assembly in June, say Pataki-era policies intended to help bring New York into compliance with stricter federal welfare guidelines lack an emphasis on job training and have pushed women into low-paying jobs that do not lift them out of poverty. They argue that the system is biased toward male recipients, whom they say are pointed toward industries that employ more men and offer better wages.

Opponents, including Mayor Bloomberg, say the legislation would ultimately hurt recipients by prolonging job searches and by saddling welfare agencies with a vaguely worded mandate they view as a relic of the 1970s and 1980s, before the federal government under President Clinton imposed a five-year time limit on welfare benefits, among other changes, to encourage lower levels of welfare dependency. During the Pataki administration the welfare caseload declined by about 1 million people. In 1995, one in 11 New Yorkers were on welfare. By 2005, the figure was one in 29.

In his first year as governor, Mr. Spitzer’s positions on a number of social and fiscal issues have been illuminated, showing a Democratic politician who isn’t pinned down to one ideological school of thought.

He stood behind a bill that would legalize gay marriage. He advocated for additional charter schools. He announced a long-term goal of achieving universal health care in the state, while pledging to contain Medicaid costs. He expressed support for allowing the use of medicinal marijuana, has called on lawmakers to shore up New York’s abortion rights laws, and has said the death penalty should be reserved for heinous crimes, including the killing of police officers.

On the issue of welfare, Mr. Spitzer has said very little. Supporters and critics say they don’t know whether the governor will sign or veto the bill.

A spokeswoman for Mr. Spitzer, Christine Anderson, said the governor has not taken a position.

“Our main concern is that this sends the wrong message about what our offices should be doing to help people achieve self-sufficiency,” the administrator and commissioner of the Human Resources Administration and Department of Social Services in New York City, Robert Doar, said.

The problem with the current system, advocates of the bill say, is that the focus on self-sufficiency has hurt gender equity. “If you’re going to be told about jobs at McDonald’s or as tellers at the local bank, equal consideration should be given to availability of job and training programs as truck drivers or carpenters,” Sandy Stewart, a spokeswoman for the bill’s Senate Democratic sponsor, Velmanette Montgomery, said. “That’s really what this bill is trying to do.

Yesterday, the Hunger Action Network of New York, which oversees emergency food programs, issued an e-mail bulletin demanding that Mr. Spitzer sign the bill. The number of low-wage jobs is declining as the number of jobs requiring associate’s degrees expands, the e-mail said, arguing that bill will help women “develop the skills in demand today by the job market.”

Critics say the shortage of women in certain fields is not caused by welfare policies but by circumstances beyond the control of government. “There haven’t been a whole lot of women going into certain jobs outside of welfare job training. There has to be a reason for that,” a fellow at the Manhattan Institute, Heather Mac Donald, said. “To try to saddle welfare departments with additional mandates … to achieve a goal that the rest of society is not achieving is foolish. It’s legislators playing at being social engineers.”

The legislation would mandate that state welfare offices encourage recipients to seek training for “sustainable wage jobs” and promote employment in “nontraditional” fields. The bill defines sustainable as 185% of the poverty level, or $37,000 for a family of four. Nontraditional means industries in which men or women make up more than 75% of the work force. The bill’s official memo highlights such “nontraditional” occupations as furniture movers, taxi drivers, carpenters, chemists, aerospace engineers, and firefighters.

In June, Mr. Bloomberg wrote to Mr. Spitzer urging him to veto the bill.

“In order to achieve jobs with sustainable wages and benefits such as health insurance and paid leave, people with limited experience often first need to build an employment history,” Mr. Bloomberg wrote. “Delaying entry into the job market until a “sustainable wage” job is available could delay employment and is contrary to our philosophy of valuing all employment. This bill does not recognize the importance of finding employment even at a low wage and then increasing salary over time.”