One ironic stat in the "equity" conversation is that Black women are the most educated group... How does that reality fit into these observations/outcomes? Are the educated Black women following the success sequence? Are they just not having children at all? Is the negative group effect of not following the success sequence more attributable to the cultural aspects of race+class for lower-income single moms?
Thanks for the correction, y'all! Seems like there were quite a few general sites that used the NCES 2020 data to support the assertion about Black women being the most educated group overall (not what it actually said, which was they have the highest within group rates compared to their male counterparts, I think).
Thanks for your comment. Black women are not the most educated group as of 2022, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Here's a link that provides a detailed breakdown of educational attainment by race and gender for those 25 and over:
Here are the percentages of people, 25 and over, with a bachelor's degree or higher by race and gender:
Asian females - 57.8%
Asian males - 62.9%
Black females - 30.4%
Black males - 25.0%
Hispanic females - 22.9%
Hispanic males - 18.9%
White females - 43.0%
White males - 40.6%
All females - 39.0%
All males - 36.2%
Melissa Kearney's work suggests that women without college degrees are more likely to have children outside marriage than those with college degrees. Here's a link to a discussion she had about this with Jim Tankersley of the NY Times before an audience at Brookings back in September:
Thanks for your comment. The St. Louis Fed published a piece last year ("Why Do Women Outnumber Men in College Enrollment?") that includes a graphic that shows the ratio of female to male college students since 1970. I don't know how to cut and paste it into this thread, but you can access it using this link:
The graph shows that there were about 0.75 females enrolled on the campuses of four-year colleges for every male back in 1970. The ratio reached 1.0 during the early 1980's and was about 1.25 in 2019.
The NCES source I referenced includes data on the percentages of people with a college degree, 25 and over, going back to 1910. Gender breakouts aren't available until 1940. Data for Hispanics by gender isn't available until 1980. Data for Asians isn't available until 2003.
Here are the percentages, by race and gender, as of 1980:
I don’t think it’s true that black women are the most educated group. I think what you might be thinking of is “Among Black students in higher education, women are more likely than men to earn degrees: Black women get 64.1% of bachelor’s degrees, 71.5% of master’s degrees and 65.9%of doctoral, medical, and dental degrees”. However, “The number of white women (39%) getting an associate or bachelor’s degree by the age of 29 is nearly twice as high as for Black women (21%) and Latinas (20%).” From https://www.aauw.org/resources/article/fast-facts-woc-higher-ed/
One ironic stat in the "equity" conversation is that Black women are the most educated group... How does that reality fit into these observations/outcomes? Are the educated Black women following the success sequence? Are they just not having children at all? Is the negative group effect of not following the success sequence more attributable to the cultural aspects of race+class for lower-income single moms?
Thanks for the correction, y'all! Seems like there were quite a few general sites that used the NCES 2020 data to support the assertion about Black women being the most educated group overall (not what it actually said, which was they have the highest within group rates compared to their male counterparts, I think).
Thanks for your comment. Black women are not the most educated group as of 2022, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Here's a link that provides a detailed breakdown of educational attainment by race and gender for those 25 and over:
https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d22/tables/dt22_104.10.asp
Here are the percentages of people, 25 and over, with a bachelor's degree or higher by race and gender:
Asian females - 57.8%
Asian males - 62.9%
Black females - 30.4%
Black males - 25.0%
Hispanic females - 22.9%
Hispanic males - 18.9%
White females - 43.0%
White males - 40.6%
All females - 39.0%
All males - 36.2%
Melissa Kearney's work suggests that women without college degrees are more likely to have children outside marriage than those with college degrees. Here's a link to a discussion she had about this with Jim Tankersley of the NY Times before an audience at Brookings back in September:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEgtpo9eoMs
Just before the 15-minute mark she discusses the characteristics of "unpartnered" mothers.
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How can this be when women make up about 60% of higher education students?
Must be the effects of previous generations.
A breakdown graphed by age would be very interesting.
Thanks for your comment. The St. Louis Fed published a piece last year ("Why Do Women Outnumber Men in College Enrollment?") that includes a graphic that shows the ratio of female to male college students since 1970. I don't know how to cut and paste it into this thread, but you can access it using this link:
https://www.stlouisfed.org/on-the-economy/2022/mar/why-women-outnumber-men-college-enrollment
The graph shows that there were about 0.75 females enrolled on the campuses of four-year colleges for every male back in 1970. The ratio reached 1.0 during the early 1980's and was about 1.25 in 2019.
The NCES source I referenced includes data on the percentages of people with a college degree, 25 and over, going back to 1910. Gender breakouts aren't available until 1940. Data for Hispanics by gender isn't available until 1980. Data for Asians isn't available until 2003.
Here are the percentages, by race and gender, as of 1980:
Black females - 8.1%
Black males - 7.7%
Hispanic females - 6.2%
Hispanic males - 9.2%
White females - 14.4%
White males - 22.7%
All females - 13.6%
All males - 20.9%
I don’t think it’s true that black women are the most educated group. I think what you might be thinking of is “Among Black students in higher education, women are more likely than men to earn degrees: Black women get 64.1% of bachelor’s degrees, 71.5% of master’s degrees and 65.9%of doctoral, medical, and dental degrees”. However, “The number of white women (39%) getting an associate or bachelor’s degree by the age of 29 is nearly twice as high as for Black women (21%) and Latinas (20%).” From https://www.aauw.org/resources/article/fast-facts-woc-higher-ed/