When she left Obama Jr to pursue it, at that time her career was social anthropology. She left to do field work in Indonesia and in Japan. Once she got her doctorate she then moved into “rural development” and such programs as micro-loans, working within what has become the web of international NGO’s.
I’ve always suspected that Obama’s mother was the one who put him in touch with radical socialists, first in high school in Hawaii, then at Occidental college in Ca. She was close to the same age as the Weathermen and shared the same ideology.