ranked law schools. This is nearly 15 percentage points higher than for women enrollments in law schools as a whole. In the 2008-09 academic year there were 1,747 black women
enrolled at the 50 highest-rated law schools. At 43 of these 50 top-rated law schools, women made up a majority of the Afri- can-American students. At 25 of the 50 top-rated schools, black women made up 60 percent or more of the African-American students. At seven law schools with large numbers of black students
— Emory, the College of William and Mary, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Georgia, American University, the University of California at San Francisco, and the University of Virginia — black women made up more than 70 percent of African-American enrollments. Today black women make up less than 50 percent of the Af- rican-American enrollments at only six of the nation’s 50 high- est-ranked law schools: the University of Arizona, the Univer- sity of California at Davis, Northwestern University, the University of Illinois, the University of Minnesota, and Yeshiva University. The emerging dominance of black women over black men in
the legal profession is also happening at the nation’s six histori- cally black law schools. Black women make up a clear majority of the law students at each of these six schools. At all six of these schools combined, black women make up 63.2 percent of all African-American enrollments. This rate is very similar to the percentage of black women among African-American law school students at the nation’s top 50 law schools.
Black Men May Have Stemmed the Tide JBHE conducted a similar survey five years ago. Since that
time black men have narrowed the gap with black women. Five years ago black women made up 64.3 percent of all African- American enrollments at the nation’s 50 highest-ranked law schools compared to 61.7 percent today. Five years ago there were only three top law schools at which black men were a ma- jority of all African-American enrollments. In this survey there are six. Five years ago black women were 60 percent or more of African-American enrollments at 33 of the 50 top law schools. Today the figure is 25. In our earlier survey there were nine leading law schools where black women made up 70 percent or more of all African-American enrollments. In this year’s survey there are seven top law schools where black women are at least 70 percent of all black enrollments. Five years ago black women made up 63.4 percent of all African-American enrollments at the black law schools. As we stated earlier, today black women are 63.2 percent of all Afri- can-American enrollments at the six law schools at HBCUs.
Why Do Black Women Excel in Legal Education? What is the reason black women have come to dominate African-American legal education in this country? Clearly, the fact that black women earn nearly two thirds of all black bach- elor’s degrees in the United States necessarily will result in a larger pool of black women, compared to black men, who have the option of entering law school.
The Black E.O.E. Journal
www.blackeoejournal.com 77
Furthermore, some surveys show that upwards of 80 percent of
all students on the honor rolls at the nation’s historically black col- leges and universities are women. Therefore, black women appear more likely than black men to be achieving the high grade point averages in their undergraduate years that will enable them to qualify for admission to law school. But the issue of why black women are pursuing a difficult law curriculum at a faster rate than black men also raises some ex- tremely sensitive issues: • Some standardized tests suggest that black women tend to be
better writers than black men. Writing ability is an important qual- ification for success in law school. • Law firms, in common with commercial organizations in gen-
eral, get employment credit for “two-fers” — the hiring of a black and a woman. Black women often attend law school to take advan- tage of the strong demand for African-American women at law firms. • According to some demographers, 75 percent of African-
American children spend a portion of their childhood without a father. If, as is likely, the presence of a father as a guide and role model is more important to the future ambitions of boys than of girls, it seems likely that for this reason alone fewer young Afri- can-American males will be showing up to face the minefield of three years of law school.
Source: The Journal of Black in Higher Education
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