Thursday, December 03, 2009

Black Women Earning College Degrees Outnumber College-Educated Black Men 2 to 1

I've written before about the huge and growing female-male "college degree gap" see posts here, here and here. Women now dominate men at almost every level of higher education, in terms of degrees conferred (the only exception is for Professional Degrees - MD, JD, and DDs). Here's the breakdown for graduates of the Class of 2009 (estimates from the Department of Education, data here):

Associate's Degrees: 164 for women for every 100 for men.

Bachelor's Degrees: 137.5 for women for every 100 for men.

Master's Degrees: 152 for women for every 100 for men.

Professional Degrees: 99.15 for women for every 100 for men.

Doctoral Degrees: 105 for women for every 100 for men.

The Department of Education also has college degree data based on sex and race/ethnicity, but it's only through the 2006-2007 academic year. The chart above shows the college degree breakdown for the graduating classes of 1977 and 2007 based on the number of degrees earned by black females for every 100 degrees earned by black males. The "degree gap" is much wider for black college graduates compared to the degree gap for all racial/ethnic groups.

For example, there were almost 250 master's degrees awarded in 2007 to black females for every 100 degrees earned by black men. Consider also that in 1976-1977, black men outnumbered black women for doctor's degrees and professional degrees (MDs and JDs) and there were 100 doctor's degrees earned by black men for every 67 degrees awarded to black females, and 100 professional degrees for black men for every 44.1 degrees earned by black women (more than a 2:1 ratio in favor of black men). By 2007, the gender imbalance had completely reversed and black women outnumbered black men by almost 2:1 for both doctor's and professional degrees.

Comments welcome.


At 12/03/2009 6:08 PM, Anonymous Dr. T said...

After two generations of public schools greatly favoring girls over boys, we see that a 'proper' balance is almost achieved. When women get three times as many advanced degrees as men, then feminists and educators may decide that the mistreatment of boys by our schools should stop. But, then again, they may not be satisfied until the ratio of advanced degrees is ten to one, and almost all men are relegated to the unskilled labor pool.

I glad my two children were girls who could tolerate the horrid environments of grade school and middle school.

At 12/03/2009 6:25 PM, Blogger Walt G. said...

Dr. T,

How do public schools favor girls over boys, and why do girls tolerate horrid environments better than boys?

At 12/04/2009 12:09 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Anyone care to comment on what this gender gap in education will do the wage gap as these young women hit their earning prime.

At 12/04/2009 6:08 AM, Blogger randian said...

I congratulate feminists on successfully rendering men undateable, hence destroying our civilization. The lesbian contingent might even have intended this result.

We all know women are hypergamous. They almost never marry down. What do women do then? In my experience, they do not change their standards. The idea that they will is a feminist lie. They either live alone, or marry the state so they can steal from the men they can't have. A bunch of unmarriageable men who know they're being systematically locked out are an explosion waiting to happen.

At 12/04/2009 10:07 AM, Anonymous gettingrational said...

Most black women are not married to black men. Black males are raised in chaotic households where women are at the center of influence. There are rewards and incentives at all levels of government to have children out of wedlock.

The result, as Randian has aptly stated, is that these women are married to the "state". The state appeals for votes by promising more programs to overcome job "bias" in all fields. These programs give special training and programs for females (especially minorities).

Black males seem to be disposed of by their fathers at conception and used as a gov't income stream by the mothers. I don't deny the mothers love their children but the boys are suffering.

At 12/04/2009 10:25 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

as a male teacher, I think that there is some truth to the statement that schooling tends to favor boys over girls, particularly in the lower grades. Why?

Mainly teaching styles and behavior expectations. Girls TEND to be quieter, more reserved and able to work independently at that age. Boys TEND to be more energetic and rambunctious.

The difficulty, particularly in middles school, is channeling that male energy (and sometimes female) into something productive. However, some teachers mistake it as bad behavior and punish students who cannot sit still. While sometimes punishment does need to be given, the environment that is created TENDS to favor boys over girls.

The "horrid" environment isn't really horrid. But I will say - middle school is its on beast that the few and the proud can succeed in.

At 12/04/2009 11:04 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Boys TEND to be more energetic and rambunctious.

Not to worry, feminists have Ritalin. By some studies more than 10 percent of male students are being medicated. Imagine the outrage if a school system dominated by men was medicating more than 10 percent of girls just to get them to conform to a male centered learning environment.

The bottom line is that women have sold out their sons. Fathers of girls were at the forefront of change to ensure that their daughters were treated more equally in schooling, women are AWOL when their sons need them.

At 12/04/2009 11:39 AM, Blogger Walt G. said...

Without getting into the cause and effect or moral judgement calls, I wonder what the rate per 100 would be comparing unincarcerated black males and females. That would be the group most likley to attend college, and the significant number of black males in jail and prison should be factored into a valid analysis.

At 12/04/2009 11:59 AM, Blogger Mark J. Perry said...


But can't many of those in prison get Associate's or Bachelor's degrees? Maybe there are different rules in different states for taking college classes while in prison?

At 12/04/2009 12:38 PM, Blogger Walt G. said...

Some states may fund college for prisoners, but that is one of the first things cut when funding is low. With the very low percentage of high school graduates in prison, many prisoners are lucky to finish high school while incarcerated. Sadly, I know too many personally who have this problem.

Here are two questions for everyone:

Should taxpayers fund college for those who are in prison when the state is cutting funding for those who are not?

Which legislator would want to run on a prisoners' rights platform?

At 12/04/2009 4:12 PM, Anonymous Mr. Econotarian said...

I wonder if women are earning degrees that will actually provide them with higher incomes though.

Here are some of the bachelor degrees dominated by women, with my subjective income rating:

High income:
-Biological and biomedical sciences
-Health professions and related clinical sciences

Medium Income:
-Communications, journalism, and related programs
-Public administration and social service professions

High income if you get a pro degree, worthless otherwise:

Money losing majors:
-Family and consumer sciences
-Liberal arts and sciences, general studies, and humanities
-Foreign languages, literatures, and linguistics
-English language and literature/letters
-Multi/interdisciplinary studies
-Visual and performing arts

At 12/04/2009 5:38 PM, Blogger Tex said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

At 12/04/2009 5:41 PM, Blogger Tex said...


K-12 schools have undergone many changes over the last few decades that have negatively affected boys. I’ll just mention a few.

-- Increased emphasis on verbal skills, often to the detriment of quantitative skills. For example, requirements to explain math answers in non-math language and the increasing use of math journals favors girls, who are typically one or two years more advanced in verbal skills than boys are.

-- The middle school model, a recent development now in place in most areas, requires that students master organizational and time management skills at a stage where boys lag behind girls in these areas. This negatively affects boys’ learning across all subjects during critical learning years.

-- Reading material has changed to incorporate more topics of interest to girls, which affects boys’ interest and motivation in reading. There is a widespread change in the “tone” of texts that disparages any aggressive behavior, e.g., war is always bad.

-- The Whole Language fad replaced phonics instruction, which was a better way for boys to learn reading. For example, it’s been found that boys are less likely to be able to infer from the context what a word should be; they do better when they area able to sound words out phonetically.

I realize I’m generalizing about boys vs. girls, but these are valid based on the latest science.

BTW, most of these “innovations” lack any basis in sound research and are bad for boys AND girls. K-12 schools are just a mess.

At 12/04/2009 6:38 PM, Anonymous Dr. T said...

Public schools favor girls over boys by doing the following:

1. Requiring grade school kids to sit in their seats for long stretches of time without doing anything other than listening to the teacher or to students who were called upon to answer a question or read a passage.

2. Avoiding the use of learning techniques preferred by boys such as kinesthetic learning (using movement to learn), hands-on learning, demonstrations using objects rather than images, learning by building things, etc. Most learning in public schools is passive (reading or listening).

3. Restricting activities: Students must walk in lines and remain silent when moving from classroom to any destination such as library, cafeteria, or outdoors for recess.

4. Elimination of gym from most schools.

5. Turning recess into wimp-cess: no running, no tag, no climbing, no anything that might cause a boo-boo. The boys can't burn-off their energies.

6. Blatant favoratism towards girls by some teachers.

7. Blatant discrimination against boys by some teachers.

8. Rapid "diagnosis" of attention deficit disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder of any boy who won't pay attention and sit still for hours on end. ADD and ADHD now are diagnosed in one-seventh of young boys (and almost no girls). The boys are doped-up so they won't "disrupt" class. The true prevalence of ADD and ADHD combined is less than 1%. Pediatricians participate in false diagnoses because they rake in big bucks from the continual office visits and prescription renewals.

That's what our boys go through unless they are home schooled or placed in a good private school. If my kids had been boys, they never would have attended public school.

At 12/04/2009 7:04 PM, Anonymous Lyle said...

Re fields that have great economic value and fields that don't, I agree generally, foreign language partly depends on the major. Arabic, Pashtun, Farsi, etc. likely mean a good job with the Government particularly if you get good at verbal translation, if one looks at European languages not a lot of money in them, as with the various arts degrees, where unless you luck out/strike it rich you get to wait tables.

At 5/06/2010 11:05 PM, Blogger Chris said...

My analysis, based solely on observation and any personal experiences, is that the educational/wage earning gap between black women and men is rooted in societal beliefs then perpetuated in academia and is ultimately manifested in the labor market. Whereas, due to stereotyping, black males are habitually viewed in a negative light and black females are seen as being more docile, friendly, accepting and capable. Therefore, society, academia and the labor market accepts her more readily than him. Thus the black male is placed in the position of underclass to every other race and gender including black females.


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