Degrees Are Not Enough : Success and Challenges of Black Women Pursuing College Degrees.

Black women are succeeding highly across the country in Higher Education. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (2010) Black women received 66% of undergraduate degrees received by Black people in America in the 2007-2008 school year. This extreme success reflects their abilities to compete at the highest levels while attending institutions of higher education. Their success is not rewarded with job opportunities and equal wages which is reflected by their lack of representation in highly paid fields including science and medicine.America has been organized and governed by systemic oppression of certain groups this oppression stems from a combination of White privilege and male privilege. White privilege has been documented since McIntosh (1988) published “White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondence through Work in Women’s Studies”. The discussion of sexism and racism has been a topic of scholarly research. The blatantly obvious wage gap in America between men and women is an example of how racism and sexism work together to oppress these women. According to (National Science Foundation, 2015), only 2% of practicing scientist and engineers were identified as Black women; this statistic is one example of how Black women are not given equal access to these fields. The story of Black women experiencing these situations are told throughout this research in an effort to help bring light to their great success and lack of equality even in this day and age.