Black Women in Higher Education: College of Arts and Sciences
AUTHOR: Miranda Rivers
This study provides insights into the experiences of women faculty at Howard University's College of Arts and Sciences. It highlights the historical institutional and societal practices that prompted shifts in the roles and positions of women over time. Examining gender representation among faculty and leadership positions in COAS provided several insights into Howard’s oldest and largest college. First, the experiences of women have varied over time. Second, women have been overly represented in the arts and have had less representation in the college’s sciences departments. Third, while Black women at Howard may have, for the most part, been able to avoid “double jeopardy” at the historically black institution, or what Francis Beale (2008) describes as dual exposure to racism and sexism, the experiences of women faculty were gendered.