For much of American history, discussions of gender inequality properly focused on the barriers confronting women. Within the African American community, however, another form of inequality has developed that deserves greater attention. African American women have made remarkable gains in education, employment, and the professions, while African American men have not advanced at the same rate. The result is a widening gender gap with consequences for marriage, family formation, and community stability.
Education reveals one of the most striking disparities. Among African Americans ages 25 to 34 in 2024, 38 percent of women held at least a bachelor’s degree, compared with only 26 percent of men. In 1995, the figures were 14 percent for women and 16 percent for men. In less than three decades, African American women moved from slightly behind men to 12 percentage points ahead.
The consequences are particularly visible within the African American middle class, where education influences employment, income, social networks. As increasing numbers of African American women graduate from college and enter professional careers, the pool of African American men with comparable educational and economic backgrounds has not grown at the same rate.
For professional African American women seeking African American partners with similar educational backgrounds, the mathematics can become difficult. Some form relationships with men having different educational or economic backgrounds, some marry outside their race, and others remain unmarried. Educational credentials do not determine a person’s worth or suitability as a partner. Nevertheless, a substantial imbalance in the pool of similarly educated men and women inevitably affects dating, marriage, and family formation.
The appropriate response is to devote greater attention and resources to the circumstances of African American boys and men. Educational disparities develop long before college through differences in achievement, discipline, expectations, mentoring, and opportunity. Increasing college-going and graduation rates for African American men must therefore begin with improving the educational prospects of African American boys.
We do not have to begin from scratch. In 2014, President Barack Obama launched My Brother’s Keeper to address opportunity gaps confronting boys and young men of color from childhood through education and employment. 100 Black Men of America has built a national mentoring network emphasizing education and leadership, while the National CARES Mentoring Movement mobilizes African American adults to mentor young people. These programs provide models that can be expanded and sustained.
Mass incarceration must also remain part of the discussion. Removing large numbers of men from their communities, and limiting their opportunities after incarceration, affects families as well as individuals. The premature mortality of African American men requires similar attention.
The growing gender divide should set off alarm bells beyond the African American community. African Americans have often served as the canaries in the coal mine of American social change, experiencing problems earlier or more intensely that later become apparent throughout society.
That may already be happening. Among all Americans ages 25 to 34 in 2024, 47 percent of women held at least a bachelor’s degree, compared with 37 percent of men. The educational gender gap, changing patterns of marriage and family formation, and the economic difficulties confronting many men are increasingly national problems regardless of race or ethnicity.
The success of African American women demonstrates what expanded opportunity can accomplish. The challenge now is to make certain that African American men are not left behind.