Women’s Representation in the Highest Court

Abstract

The presence of women justices in the highest constitutional courts varies significantly across countries, yet there is little existing research that engages this substantial cross-national variation. Using an original data set of women’s representation in the constitutional courts in fifty democracies combined with qualitative case studies, we assess the effect of the selection mechanism on this variation and find that the existence of a “sheltered” versus “exposed” selection mechanism is a critical determinant of women’s presence. That is, when the selectors are sheltered from electoral accountability, they are less likely to select women as judges because they do not benefit from credit claiming. When the selectors are exposed and can claim credit, however, the unique traits and visibility of the highest court generate an incentive to appoint women.

Women's Judicial Representation in Haiti: Unintended Gains of State-Building Efforts

“…8 Knowledge of women's access to the judiciary is largely based on the Global North (see, e.g., Boigeol 1993;Kenney 2013a;Rackley 2013), especially U.S. courts (Cook 1982(Cook , 1984bGoelzhauser 2011;Resnik 1991). Researchers also tend to focus on more prestigious courts, be it women's entry to international courts (Dawuni 2019;Dawuni and Kuenyehia 2018;Grossman 2016) or comparative studies explaining global and regional variations in the number of women in countries' highest courts (Arana Araya, Hughes, and Pérez-Liñán 2021;Arrington et al 2021;Dawuni and Kang 2015;Dawuni and Masengu 2019;Escobar-Lemmon et al 2021;Kang et al 2020;Thames and Williams 2013;Valdini and Shortell 2016). Fewer studies include lower courts when explaining women's access to judiciaries beyond the Global North, with some notable exceptions (Bauer and Dawuni 2016;Bonthuys 2015;Kamau 2013;Kenney 2018;Sonnevold and Lindbekk 2017).…”

“…7.Another explanation for the higher number of women in higher posts could be for symbolic reasons: appointing more women to these relatively more visible posts may appease international or domestic pressure for gender diversity in courts (Valdini and Shortell 2016). …”

Problems in the pathways to judicial success: women in the legal profession in Northern Ireland

“…Patterns of male-dominance in the judiciary are replicated across several jurisdictions (CEPEJ, 2016). Thus, it is perhaps unsurprising that the relationship between gender and the judiciary is one which attracts much academic interest in jurisdictions across the globe (Rackley, 2013;Valdini and Shortell, 2016;Bessière and Mille, 2014;McLoughlin, 2015;Crandall, 2014).…”

Problems in the pathways to judicial success: women in the legal profession in Northern Ireland

“…Patterns of male-dominance in the judiciary are replicated across several jurisdictions (CEPEJ, 2016). Thus, it is perhaps unsurprising that the relationship between gender and the judiciary is one which attracts much academic interest in jurisdictions across the globe (Rackley, 2013;Valdini and Shortell, 2016;Bessière and Mille, 2014;McLoughlin, 2015;Crandall, 2014).…”