A Woman of Many Firsts: The Honorable Lenore Prather

Abstract

The number of women who have served on a state Supreme Court is not representative of the number of women lawyers in the United States. Even fewer women have achieved the position of Chief Justice. Lenore Prather is one of three women Chief Justices in the southern United States. This article applies judicial scholarship on career background, selection process, and decision making to compare Prather's experience to that of male colleagues on her Court and other women justices. Also, Prather's service as Chief Justice is compared to that of Chief Justice Susie Sharp of North Carolina. This study of Prather confirms significant findings about women judges, but it also requires caveats. The analysis of her decision‐making places Prather in a centralist position on her Court. Both Prather and Sharp may be described as having a “mixed voice” role orientation in their case decision making, yet there are interesting differences between them.