Underrepresentation of african americn women in higher education Dissertation

Underrepresentation of african americn women in higher education administrative positions - Dissertation Example Underrepresentation of african americn women in higher education administrative positions The main purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the poor representation of African American women in higher education administrative posts in public institutions of higher education. A Synopsis of African American women The end Civil War manifested an innovative period for education and occupation for African American women, while the passage of the Land Grant College Act and the accompanying Act of 1890, which entailed the allocation of black American education, marked an innovative commencement for civic higher learning . Previously, women and African Americans were basically not included in institutions of higher learning. African American women first obtained entry to institutions of higher learning in the United States when 1837 students where admitted at Oberlin College after Harvard College was developed for the teaching of young men. This was the starting point for women in official higher learning. Later on, African American women were enrolled to and gained degrees from Oberlin College. Among them was Lucy Session who graduated with a literary degree from Oberlin College. This made her the first black woman to obtain a degree in the United States, and Mary Jane Patterson who graduated with a B.A. degree from the same Oberlin College. She was the first black woman to obtain a bachelor’s degree in the United States. Apart from obtaining degrees, African American women were elected as administrators at higher learning institutions. Coppin was appointed the principal of the Institution for Colored Youth in 1869; this made her the first black woman to head a higher learning institution in the United States (Littlefield, 1997). At the department of Lincoln University, Silone Yates was made the professor and head of the Natural Sciences in 1889 (Littlefield, 1979). During the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, a change for African American women was developed. Nevertheless, African American women’s first entry into higher lear ning institution was not simple. Just the way as, Solomon (1985) illustrated, in the previous nineteenth and beginning of twentieth century, the black university woman was the exclusion of the exceptions in that both white and black required her. Regardless of the opposition, African American women pressed forward for highly developed learning. Thirty black women in 1890 in the United States had obtained degrees, as compared to three hundred Black men and two thousand five hundred white women. According to a research study conducted by Dubois, two hundred and twenty five Black women had gained degrees, sixty five from Oberlin College. From these figures the progress was protracted, although the amount of African American women gaining degrees at higher learning institutions was increasing. At the commencement of the twentieth century, African Americans’ women contribution in higher learning improved. This was a period of expansion for African Americans. The National Associati on for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) was developed after the migration of many African Americans (NAACP, 2002). African American women aimed at making social change within the society. They advocated for an increase societal literacy in the African American society and endorse â€Å"racial strength.† They kept on becoming the first African American and the first women in most areas of higher learning. During 1920’s, many institutions and association were developed mainly for African American women in higher learning. Bennett College, developed as a coeducational organization in 1873, turned to a university for women (Littlefield, 199