Columns 11-12 of Table 5 show that the gender gap is substantially larger among black than non-black defendants (74% versus 51%). The race-gender interaction adds to our understanding of racial disparity: racial disparities among men significantly favor whites,29 but among women, the race gap in this sample is insignificant (and reversed in sign). The interaction also offers another theory for the gender gap: it might partly reflect a “black male effect”—a special harshness toward black men, who are by far the most incarcerated group in the U.S. This possibility is not really an “explanation” for the gender gap, much less a reason to worry less about it—but it might cause policymakers to understand it differently, as an issue of intersectional race-gender disparity. This theory only goes so far, however—the gender gap even among non-blacks is over 50%, far larger than the race gap among men [emphasis added].

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2144002&download=yes