studied, the wife was dominant, as against 20 percent of white wives. "Whereas the majority of white families are equalitarian, the largest percentage of Negro families are dominated by the wife."30
The matriarchal pattern of so many Negro families reinforces itself over the generations. This process begins with education. Although the gap appears to be closing at the moment, for a long while, Negro females were better educated than Negro males, and this remains true today for the Negro population as a whole.
Educational Attainment of the Civilian Noninstitutionol Population 18 Years of Age and Over, March 1964
The difference in educational attainment between nonwhite men and women in the labor force is even greater; men lag 1.1 years behind women.
The disparity in educational attainment of male and female youth age 16 to 21 who were out of school in February 1963, is striking. Among the nonwhite males, 66.3 percent were not high school graduates, compared with 55.0 percent of the females. A similar difference existed at the college level, with 4.5 percent of the males having completed 1 to 3 years of college compared with 7.3 percent of the females.
The poorer performance of the male in school exists from the very beginning, and the magnitude of the difference was documented by the 1960 Census in statistics on the number of children who have fallen one or more grades below the typical grade for children of the same age. The boys have more frequently fallen behind at every age level. (White boys also lag behind white girls, but at a differential of 1 to 6 percentage points.)
Percent of Nonwhite Youth Enrolled in School Who are 1 or More Grades Below Mode for Age, by Sex, 1960
Age
Male
Female
07 to 9 years old
07.8
05.8
10 to 13 years old
25.0
17.1
14 and 15 years old
35.5
24.1
16 and 17 years old
39.4
27.2
18 and 19 years old
57.3
46.0
Source:
1960 Census, School Enrollment, PC(2) 5A, table 3, p. 24.
In 1960, 39 percent of all white persons 25 years of age and over who had completed 4 or more years of college were women. Fifty-three percent of the nonwhites who had attained this level were women.
However, the gap is closing, By October 1963, there were slightly more Negro men in college than women. Among whites there were almost twice as many men as women enrolled.
There is much evidence that Negro females are better students than their male counterparts.
Daniel Thompson of Dillard University, in a private communication on January 9, 1965, writes:
As low as is the aspirational level among lower class Negro girls, it is considerably higher than among the boys. For example, I have examined the honor rolls in Negro high schools for about 10 years. As a rule, from 75 to 90 percent of all Negro honor students are girls.
