Black Women Are Being Shortchanged on Athletic Scholarships

Under Title IX of the Higher Education Act it is unlawful for colleges and universities to discriminate on the basis of sex in the funding of their athletic programs. Yet women make up 53.5 percent of all enrollments at the nation’s largest universities but are only 44.6 percent of all students who receive athletic scholarships.

This gender inequity in opportunities for athletic scholarships is even more pronounced for African Americans. Black women make up 61 percent of all African-American enrollments at these large universities. But they are only 27.9 percent of all African-American students on athletic scholarships at these schools.

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