According to the U.S. Department of Education, in 2017, there were 821,168 full-time instructional faculty members at degree-granting institutions in the United States. Of these, 380,326, or just over 46 percent, were women.
But unlike every other racial and ethnic group, Black women hold more faculty posts than Black men. In 2017, White women made up 46.5 percent of all White faculty members. But that year, Black women were 57.2 percent of all Black faculty.
Black men still hold a large majority of all full professorships held by Black scholars. In 2017, 59.5 percent of all Black full professors were men. But Black women still do far better than their White peers. For Whites, men held 66.8 percent of all full professorships held by Whites in 2017.
Women now hold a slight majority of all associate professor positions held by Blacks. In 2017, women were 62.2 percent of all Black assistant professors and 63.4 percent of all Black instructors.
