VOLUME 4 ISSUE 2 2010 The Claremont Examining current issues in education that highlight the ongoing work of the faculty of the School of Educational Studies at Claremont Graduate University. Letter EducaThe Black Gendertion Achievement Gap A Historical Perspective Linda M. Perkins Associate University Professor Recent studies have discussed the growing gap of college attendance and graduation rates of women and girls1. While the rate of White women’s college attendance and graduation now surpasses that of men, this has been the case for Black women for over a century. Throughout the twentieth century until the present, Black women have earned more college degrees than Black men except for the decade between 1920 and 19302. This essay shall discuss the intersectionality of race and gender and how they have impacted the education of Black women and men from the nineteenth century to the present. It will shed light on the role of race and racism in reducing Black males’ college attendance beginning early in the twentieth century and the consequences of the tremendous gap in Black male and female higher education attainment. School of Educational Studies at Claremont Graduate University For more than 80 years, the School of Educational Studies (SES) at Claremont Graduate University (CGU) has been a leader in providing graduate education. Many of our more than 5,700 alumni have held positions as college presidents, superintendents, principals, award- winning teachers, and tenured professors at colleges and universities around the world. 1 The educational, economic Black Education in the North and political discrimination experienced by Blacks due to There were scattered slavery and the aftermath of opportunities for Blacks to Jim Crow laws and segregation obtain a formal education in the ENGAGEMENT required the efforts of all Blacks, decades of the 1830s and ‘40s in male and female, to help one the North. By the 1830s, female another. While pre-Civil War seminaries and normal schools African Americans encouraged (teacher training institutions) Black women to become emerged. However, Black educated to help “uplift” the race, women were routinely barred by the end of the nineteenth from entering such institutions. SOCIAL JUSTICE century, a conservative and The Colored American, a Black more patriarchal view of newspaper of the 1830s, gender roles emerged within appealed to White females to the Black community. admit Black women into their seminaries. When these pleas Because of the denial of were ignored, an article in the literacy and education to the paper stated, “the culture of the ACCOUNTABILITY entire race during slavery and black females minds require afterwards, Blacks have viewed more care and attention, and it education as essential for their should not be neglected.”4 In “uplift and elevation.” Black 1835, Oberlin College, founded women were encouraged in an abolitionist town of the to become educated to same name, became the only improve their race. In the institution of higher education Black newspaper, The Weekly in the nation that admitted Advocate, an 1837 article students “irrespective of color.”5 entitled, “To the Females of Colour,” urged Black women: Education was viewed as so important within the Black “in any enterprise for the community that it was not improvement of our people, uncommon for Black families either moral or mental, our to relocate to Oberlin, Ohio. hands would be palsied without For example, when Blanche women’s influence … let our Harris was denied admission beloved female friends then rise “The faculty of the School to a White female seminary up, and exert all their power, in of Educational Studies in Michigan in the 1850s, her encouraging and sustaining this believes a socially just nation educates all its diverse effort [education] in which we entire family moved to Oberlin. Similarly, Mary Jane Patterson, citizenry through networks have made to disabuse the public of effective and accountable mind of the misrepresentations who in 1862 became the first organizations that interact made of our character; and Black woman to earn a college responsibly with families and to show the world, that there degree in the nation, moved communities…” is virtue among us, though from North Carolina in the From our vision statement concealed; talent, though buried; 1850s to Oberlin with her family intelligence, though overlooked”.3 because of the educational opportunities available at the college. The college had a Preparatory Department, a Ladies Department and a College Department. Three 2 Patterson daughters and one New England concerning White limited employment options, son graduated from Oberlin.6 women. Unlike the articles prior and lynching of Black men Fanny Jackson Coppin, the to the Civil War in the Black press and sexual assaults of Black second Black woman to earn a that urged Black women to join women by White men were college degree (Oberlin, 1865) with Black men in obtaining an commonplace. Thus, while was sent by her family from education, Black publications historian Joel Williamson Washington DC to live with frequently indicated that the notes that after Emancipation, relatives in Newport, Rhode Black woman’s place was in the Black men “internalized fully Island, prior to her attending home. Further, these articles the role of Victorian men,”9 Oberlin because of greater stated that education for Black the reality was they were not educational opportunities.7 women should be primarily for economically able to sustain a moral education and preparation patriarchal existence. Unlike Emancipation & Reconstruction: for motherhood and marriage. White women who normally Impact on Black Women Articles such as Shall our Girls terminated employment after be Educated?, The Homemaker, Despite the enlightenment marriage, married Black women and Woman’s Exalted Station of nineteenth century Blacks shouldered a sizeable burden appeared in the 1880s, and by towards the education of women, in the economic maintenance the 1890s articles that glorified due to lack of opportunities, by of their families. Ten times homemaking and encouraged 1890 only 30 Black women held as many married Black baccalaureate degrees compared women compared to White to 300 Black men and 2500 “Despite the enlightenment women worked in 1900. As White women. Emancipation of nineteenth century Blacks a consequence, education and Reconstruction resulted in towards the education and economic survival were important gender distinctions of women, due to lack of paramount to Black women. among African Americans for opportunities, by 1890 Even in the North, Black women’s economic contributions to the the first time in history, which only 30 Black women held family were key. Northern Black resulted in a change in Black baccalaureate degrees men suffered job discrimination male attitudes towards the compared to 300 Black men as early as 1850 due to foreign role of Black women within and 2500 white women.” the community. As a result of immigration. Europeans the Fifteenth Amendment in replaced Black men as servants, 1870, Black men obtained the Black women to obtain an doormen, and barbers resulting right to vote. By 1900 twenty- education to “prepare their in Black women often becoming 10 two Black men had served sons for manhood” appeared.8 the sole breadwinner. A in the nation’s Congress and These articles echoed the advice study of Blacks in Boston at scores of others had held state White women had received the turn of the century noted: earlier in the century which and local government posts. “they [Black women] have These accomplishments and also urged them to become made a relatively greater economic opportunities for Black men educated for domesticity. contribution within their race to exert authority and power, than have white women in theirs, These articles shaped even for a brief moment in so they have attained a place the thoughts of twentieth history, changed the tone of relatively greater importance century Blacks in their views of Black enthusiasm and in the social order of their own towards women’s roles within praise for Black women’s community. Negro women the community. However, leadership and aspiration. manifest a marked independence, racism thwarted any serious coupled with a sober realization For example, by the 1880s, patriarchal dominance within of the extent to which the welfare articles by the Black press the Black community. By the of the race is in their hands”.11 began to express conservative turn of the century, Blacks were views of women reminiscent completely disenfranchised of those written in antebellum in the South. They also had 3 Black Women in the 20th Century academic accomplishments. to flounder about for years without On this issue, an administrator vocational direction is one of the Economic factors and in a Black college remarked: tragic sources of frustration to the racism towards educated African Negro woman of marriageable age. American men largely explains ‘If it hadn’t been for the If professionally trained, she finds the imbalance in gender rates in economic necessity, I don’t feel that a shortage of her educational peers Black college attendance. Most they would have done it [attended among men in Negro circles.’14 college educated Black men could college]. Sometimes I feel that Negro women feel guilty about The greater academic not find jobs commensurate with the education that they do have. their educational qualifications achievements of Black women Of course, I feel that all women within their communities throughout the twentieth have this feeling, but it is more throughout the past century have century. As a result, Black prevalent among the Negro group. families educated their daughters They are very conscious of the fact had a negative impact on Black disproportionately to men. that accomplishments may prevent boys and men psychologically. Teachers were critically needed them from getting married. I have By the 1940s, Black men began in the developing school systems actually had them [Black women] to blame Black women instead of the South, and employment ask me how they can put on brakes, of the racist society that kept was virtually guaranteed.