How the Gender Gap in African-American Educational Attainment Impacts Household Income

A new report from the Pew Research Center finds that black women ages 30 to 44 with a college education provided 47 percent of their household’s income in 2007. College-educated women as a whole provided 36 percent of their total household income.

The study shows that in 2007 married women of all races between the ages of 30 and 44 had become the majority income earner in 22 percent of all marriages. This was up from 4 percent in 1970.

When we break the data down by race and education we find that 44 percent of black women with a college degree earned more than their husband. This is more than double the rate for college-educated women in this age group as a whole.

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