We are so excited to welcome Cimone Philpotts, a doctoral candidate at the University of Delaware and community organizer, as our first guest blogger. As one of her many roles, Cimone conducts research about Black women and girls in the state of Delaware. We wanted to include her research here because, while they speak specifically to the First State, the findings are all too familiar – Black women are excluded from leadership opportunities, comprehensive health care, access to high-quality education, and earnings equal to their white and male peers. Rectifying these inequities are at the heart of AEC’s mission and we are eager to bring more research like Cimone’s to the fore in order to know better and do better for Black women.

The National Coalition for 100 Black Women Inc., Delaware Chapter (NC100BW-DE) is a local affiliate of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Inc. NCBW is a nationally recognized nonprofit organization with over 60 affiliate chapters across the United States. The mission of the organization is to advocate on behalf of Black women and girls through national and local actions and strategic alliances that promote leadership development and gender equity in the areas of health, education, and economic empowerment. Raye Jones Avery serves as the President of the Delaware Chapter and I serve as the Public Policy Committee Co-Chair.

We’ve recently released the first edition of a groundbreaking report on the status of Black women and girls entitled The State of Our Union: Black Women and Girls in Delaware. President Avery notes that structural inequalities predicated on race, zip code, gender, social economic class and lifestyle are persistently widespread. The underlying belief which animates this research is that when we advocate for gender and racial equality, we break the cycles of bias, poverty, and violence against Black women and girls.

I gathered the information in the report from existing databases at both the state and the national level, surveys of everyday black women and girls who live in the state of Delaware, as well as public and private sources. It is an overview of the challenges facing Black women and girls in Delaware but these challenges are mirrored in nearly every state. The summary of data is intended for a general audience with the hope that its important findings will be helpful to policymakers, civic organizations, agencies, foundations, journalists, and those who are concerned with the status of Black women and girls.

The report confirms that Black women are vastly underrepresented in elective office, scientific and other professional fields as well as boardrooms in the state of Delaware. There is also an undeniable trend that Black women and girls lag in virtually every category. Until we close the gap on these disparities, we continue to  short-change the First State by losing the significant contributions that Black women and girls can bring to our economy and society. The intent of this report is to contribute not only to the understanding of the status of Black women and girls in Delaware, but to encourage action to address these ongoing disparities. It is important to clearly identify and analyze the needs and conditions of Black women and girls throughout the state with an eye toward improving the ability of advocates and policymakers to address these issues. Recognizing these gaps is first step toward finding solutions. Below you will see some of my findings.

The total Population of Delaware is just under 1 million at about 961,939. Of that number, 51.6% are women and 22.6% are Black. Just 11.7% are Black women. The majority of us live in New Castle County (one of the three counties in Delaware).

Black Women in Leadership

Black women vote at comparatively high rates and had a higher voting rate than all other groups of men and women during the last two presidential elections. Black women remain underrepresented at every level of federal and state political office in the United States. In 2014, Black women comprised 6.4% of the US population, but as of August 2016 held only 3.4% of the seats in congress and no seats in the Senate until Kamala Harris was elected as the second black woman to have ever had a US Senate seat. In state legislatures, Black women have held just 3.5% of seats. In Delaware we have one Black woman member of Congress, one Black woman in the state senate (who is retiring in November), and one Black woman state representative. I would like to note that all three women are members of the organization that authored this report.

Black women are represented among some leadership positions, specifically as corporate presidents and CEOs, as nonprofit and for-profit board chairs, and as commissioners, lawyers, doctors, and judges. However, we have yet to see a Black person – let alone a Black person –as a supreme court judge.

Black Women’s Employment and Earnings

Statistics and scholarly research say that higher levels of education render higher levels of income but that’s not the case with Black women. We are highly represented in the labor force and we are highly educated however we are more likely to live in poverty.

Equal pay has been an issue since women’s suffrage in 1913. If the current trends continue, Black women in Delaware will not see equal pay until the year 2051. Of all businesses in Delaware, 32.6% are owned by women yet only 19.4% are owned by black women.
 

Black Women Health and Well-Being

More than anything, Black women want inner peace. We define our health in emotional terms. After that, we want financial peace. We want to take care of our families, keep a roof over our heads, and send our children to good schools. Only THEN do we focus on our own physical health. Ninety percent of Black women have health insurance, but there is a disconnect between being insured and having access to quality healthcare. Black women have higher mortality rates in childbirth, heart disease, and breast cancer.
 

Black Girls in Education

Performance: About 15% of the students enrolled in Delaware’s public schools are Black girls and the majority of them are enrolled in New Castle County. Statewide, students perform at a 43% average proficiency level on the Math section of the Smarter Balanced Assessment (SBA) and 54% average proficiency on the English Language Arts (ELA) section. Statewide, Black girls are performing at a 27% proficiency rate on the Math section of SBA and 44% on the ELA section. Black girls perform significantly lower in Math and just 10 percentage points lower in ELA.

Discipline: Of the many roadblocks to success that Black girls face, the disparities in school discipline are striking. About 12% of Black girls are suspended from school nationwide, a rate six times higher than that of white girls. Black girls are routinely punished more harshly than white girls for the same offenses, and are often suspended from school for minor and subjective offenses like “disobedience” or “disruptive behavior”. Although Black girls only make up about 15% of the total public school statewide population, in Delaware about 19% of Black girls encounter discipline incidents varying from detention and suspension to expulsion.

Funding: I think we have all heard the recurring narrative of inequitable student funding throughout the nation by now. The student population in Delaware has changed rapidly throughout the years but the way in which we fund our neediest children remains unaltered. More students, more need! High-need student populations grow every year. The state spends $1.4 billion annually on education and is one of the top states in terms of per pupil education spending. Delaware is sending more money to its affluent schools than its low-income schools. Delaware also has one of the oldest public education funding models in the country: it was developed in the World War II era and is one of only four states that does not provide funding for low-income students or English Language Learners.

In January 2018, the ACLU of Delaware filed a complaint against the State of Delaware arguing that in order to successfully educate all of Delaware’s students, schools need specialists, counselors, small class sizes, necessary technology, and specialized training and support for teachers and staff so that they can provide high quality education.

Despite the blatant inequities that Black women and girls face, we sing the tune of resilience and tenacity. There are A LOT of striking facts in this report and there are also laudable facts but all in all this report suggests the need for ongoing conversations, additional collection and analysis of data, and ongoing equity-focused work. I invite you to read the report by visiting www.ncbwde.org.

Once again, we want to sincerely thank Cimone for her contribution. Work like hers informs the work we do at AEC. Particularly, we work with organizations to assess and remediate school-based policies that are biased against women, like school discipline policies, job postings, and family leave policies. If we can help you critically consider the ways in which your organization can promote, rather than punish, women and girls, please contact us.