The Gender Gap in Black Dental School Enrollments

In recent issues we have reported the persistence of racial segregation in U.S. dental school education. There is a final note on black dental students that must be noted. Nationwide, men of all races make up a vast majority of all dental school students. In 2004 only 37.9 percent of all white dental school students were women. But as is the case in most areas of African-American higher education, black women are a larger proportion of dental school enrollments than are black men.

Today more than three fifths of all black dental school students are women. Since 1995 the percentage of all black dental school students who are women has increased from 57.2 percent to 61.6 percent.

Copyright © 2006. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.