The authors review and analyze the educational progress made by African Americans, paying special attention to differences in the educational attainment of Black women and men. Increasingly, Black women comprise the majority of African Americans enrolled in college and receiving associate, bachelor's, master's, doctoral, and professional degrees. Using aggregate data, the authors explore the feasibility of various explanations both for the decline and stagnation of Black men's participation in postsecondary education and for the educational progress that Black women have made. The authors also examine the benefits African American women are purportedly receiving from their participation in college and in other postsecondary education, and they challenge those who warn of the increasing feminization of Black educational achievement. They conclude by noting the implications of the findings for various public policies, including the recent welfare reform legislation that contains regulations that restrict the access of welfare recipients to postsecondary education.
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