Abstract

Black women are continuing to showcase excellence, perseverance and give meaning to the black girl magic statement. Over the years, more black women have enrolled in higher education settings and furthered their education to achieve doctoral degrees. However, even as the numbers of black women achieving doctoral degrees soar, the advancement of their roles in higher education, specifically predominantly white institutions, does not match the numbers. The real problem lies in institutionalized racism and sexism. While some universities may pride themselves on saying that they have a diverse staff, more than half of their “diversity” lies in lower administrative roles. Less than 10% of African American women are full time professors at 4-year universities. Black women in positions of presidency, dean, chair, director, and provost are slim to none. For those black women who have obtained such titles, you will see that their success has come at a cost. Current findings will be explained further. Please take into consideration that there is limited research on this topic currently.