Setting Our Own Agenda: Exploring the Meaning of Gender Disparities Among Blacks in Higher Education

Abstract

Since 1972-the year affirmative action was initiated at U.S. colleges and universities-Blacks have experienced sporadic increases, then consistent declines, in opportunities to participate in American higher education. In the paths from high school to undergraduate school or from graduate school to a position as faculty member or administrator, the Black presence has eroded and continues to erode at a steady pace. Indeed, Black men and women are severely underrepresented in U.S. institutions of higher education. Representing about 13% of the nation's population and about 14% of its college-aged youth, Blacks are about 9.5% of undergraduate students, 4.8% of graduate students, and 4% of faculty members. In terms of the integration of Blacks into the mainstream of American higher education, these figures are even less encouraging because they include the numbers of Black students and faculty at historically Black colleges and universities. Moreover, Blacks are the only minority group in recent years to actually experience declines in the number of degrees awarded at nearly all levels (Sudarkasa, 1987; Blackwell, 1987). Looking closely at the data, however, it is clear that Black participation in higher education is characterized by persistent gender disparities. Black females have higher participation rates in high school graduation, college enrollment, college matriculation, graduate school enrollment, and degree attainment. Further, between 1976 and 1986, Black males sustained greater losses in higher education participation rates than any other racial or gender group in critical areas such as enrollments, number of degrees earned, and number of faculty positions held (American Council on Education [ACE], 1988). When looking at gender disparities, however, one should be mindful of several relevant facts. First, the growing disparity between Black males and females is less a consequence of significant increases for Black women than of a decline for Black men. Black women have not improved their status over the past ten years but have held relatively stable. Second, broader social variables rather than individual or group deviances must be investigated in any meaningful interpretation of educational attainment. Already the literature has begun to focus on causes