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The wide gender gap that prevails at all stages of African-American higher education extends to the student bodies at our nation's highest-ranked universities. But in most cases the gap is smaller than the national average.
JBHE has consistently documented the fact that black women hold a large lead over black men in almost every facet of higher education. Black women currently earn about two thirds of all African-American bachelor's degree awards, 70 percent of all master's degrees, and more than 60 percent of all doctorates. Black women also hold a majority of all African-American enrollments in law, medical, and dental schools.
Looking exclusively to undergraduate higher education, the latest Department of Education figures show that black women account for 63.6 percent of all African-American enrollments.
JBHE recently surveyed the nation's 30 highest-ranked universities to determine if the gender gap in African-American higher education was more, or less, pronounced at these institutions than in the nation as a whole. The answer is that there is a gender gap, but it is generally smaller than the national average.
Twenty-six of the 30 highest-ranked universities responded to our survey. Those institutions that declined to provide black enrollment data by gender were Wake Forest University, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Southern California, and Carnegie Mellon University.
The JBHE survey found that at 23 of the 26 institutions that responded to our queries, there were more black women enrolled than black men. Only at the University of Notre...