As a growing number of women lead America's HBCUs—many of them praised for creating new partnerships or wrangling financially troubled institutions back from possible dissolution—their presence is forcing conversations related to gender equality in academia. It also is stirring up a conversation about the sometimes-challenging environments in which they must succeed.

"On a number of these issues, it's because of our very conservative moral religious perspective," Johnny C. Taylor Jr., chair of the (U.S.) President's Board of Advisers on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, said of black Americans. "It's absolutely true that we're more conservative and specifically have seen that with women's issues."

This dynamic is one of those at the heart of the hurdles that female leaders face when they take on the presidencies of HBCUs. Right now, 25 women are presidents of the nation's 100 HBCUs, according to the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and the United Negro College Fund. That figure is a trickle behind the 30 percent of college presidents that were women in 2016, according to a 2017 survey by the American Council on Education.

HBCU advocates say the number of black female HBCU presidents should be much higher given that females make up between 62 percent and 75 percent of HBCU student bodies, depending on the source. But Taylor points out female HBCU presidents numbered only 10 just a few years ago, so the trend is still toward improvement.

Whatever the case, women leading HBCUs are at the center of national conversations as they navigate a world they say is not for the faint of heart. There are no programs to support them, but for now, they are speaking out for the need for mentors. As mathematicians, psychologists, biologists and more, they are not intellectual lightweights and they've had to walk this road by themselves.

Learn more about the experiences of female leaders in "Changing Herstory" in the March/April issue of Currents.

This article is from the March 2019 BriefCASE issue. 

Please share your questions and comments with Naomi Dillon at ndillon@case.org.