Hostname: page-component-cb9f654ff-pvkqz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-08-29T12:31:59.616Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Women's Representation on High Courts in Advanced Industrialized Countries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2008

Margaret S. Williams  and
Frank C. Thames
Margaret S. Williams
Affiliation:
Goucher College
Frank C. Thames
Affiliation:
Texas Tech University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Recent scholarship increasingly considers the representation of women in cross-national legislatures, often examining how the characteristics of the countries in a particular region affect the representation of women in these elected bodies. No studies have examined the representation of women on the high courts in a cross-national context. We attempt to fill this void by collecting an original data set of women's participation on high courts in the countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) from 2006 to 2007. Using this data, we examine how institutional choices of judicial selection and structural factors within the country affect women's representation. We find that the variation in women's participation on these courts, from 0% on some to 60% on others, is affected by the prestige of the court, the method of selection, and the tradition of and importance placed upon women's participation within the country. Our results suggest that choices made during the design of high courts can influence the representative nature of the institution.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Politics & Gender , Volume 4 , Issue 3 , September 2008 , pp. 451 - 471
Copyright
Copyright © The Women and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

REFERENCES

Allen, David W., and Wall, Diane E.. 1987. “The Behavior of Women State Supreme Court Justices: Are They Tokens or Outsiders?” Justice System Journal 12 (2): 232–45.Google Scholar
Anasagasti, Miriam, and Wuiame, Nathalie. 1999. Women and Decision-Making in the Judiciary in the European Union. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities.Google Scholar
Boyd, Christina L., Epstein, Lee, and Martin, Andrew D.. 2007. “Untangling the Effect of Sex on Judging.” Paper presented at the 2007 Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caul, Miki. 2001. “Political Parties and the Adoption of Candidate Gender Quotas: A Cross-National Analysis.” Journal of Politics 63 (4): 1214–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, Sue. 1992. “Do Women Judges Speak ‘In a Different Voice?’ Carol Gilligan, Feminist Legal Theory, and the Ninth Circuit.” Wisconsin Women's Law Journal 8 (1): 143–72.Google Scholar
Ehrmann, Henry W. 1976. Comparative Legal Cultures. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Epstein, Lee, Knight, Jack, and Shvetsova, Olga. 2001. “Comparing Judicial Selection Systems.” William and Mary Bill of Rights Law Journal 10 (1): 7–36.Google Scholar
Escobar-Lemmon, Maria, and Taylor-Robinson, Michelle M.. 2005. “Women Ministers in Latin American Government: When, Where, and Why?” American Journal of Political Science 49 (4): 829–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibson, James L., Caldeira, Gregory A., and Baird, Vanessa A.. 1998. “On the Legitimacy of National High Courts.” American Political Science Review 92 (2): 343–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ginsburg, Thomas. 2001. “Economic Analysis and the Design of Constitutional Courts.” Global Jurist Frontiers 1 (2): 1–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gruhl, John, Spohn, Cassia, and Welch, Susan. 1981. “Women as Policymakers: The Case of Trial Judges.” American Journal of Political Science 25 (2): 308–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gryski, Gerald, Main, Eleanor, and Dixon, William. 1986. “Models of State High Court Decision Making in Sex Discrimination Cases.” Journal of Politics 48 (1): 143–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Herron, Erik, and Randazzo, Kirk. 2003. “The Relationship Between Independence and Judicial Review in Post-Communist Courts.” Journal of Politics 65 (2): 422–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Htun, Mala N., and Jones, Mark P.. 2002. “Engendering the Right to Participate in Decision-Making: Electoral Quotas and Women's Leadership in Latin America.” In Gender and the Politics of Rights and Democracy in Latin America, ed. Craske, Nikki and Molyneux, Maxine. New York: Palgrave.Google Scholar
Kenney, Sally. 1998/1999. “The Members of the Court of Justice of the European Communities.” Columbia Journal of European Law 5 (1): 101–33.Google Scholar
Kenny, Sally. 2002. “Breaking the Silence: Gender Mainstreaming and the Composition of the European Court of Justice.” Feminist Legal Studies 10 (3/4): 257–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kenworthy, Lane, and Malami, Melissa. 1999. “Gender Inequality in Political Representation: A Worldwide Comparative Analysis.” Social Forces 78 (1): 235–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
King, Gary, Tomz, Michael, and Wittenberg, Jason. 2000. “Making the Most of Statistical Analyses: Improving Interpretation and Presentation.” American Journal of Political Science 44 (2): 347–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Linehan, Jan. 2001. “Women and Public International Litigation.” Background paper for the Project on International Courts and Tribunals, London Meeting. http://www.pict-pcti.org/publications/PICTarticles/women.pdf (March 11, 2005).Google Scholar
Matland, Richard E., and Studlar, Donley T.. 1998. “Gender and the Electoral Opportunity Structure in the Canadian Provinces.” Political Research Quarterly 51 (1): 117–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Norris, Pippa. 2004. Electoral Engineering: Voting Rules and Political Behavior. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paxton, Pamela, and Kunovich, Sherri. 2003. “Women's Political Representation: The Importance of Ideology.” Social Forces 82 (1): 87–114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Phillips, Anne. 1995. The Politics of Presence. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Pitkin, Hanna Fenichel. 1972. The Concept of Representation. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Schmidhauser, John R., ed. 1987. Comparative Judicial Systems: Challenging Frontiers in Conceptual and Empirical Analysis. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann.Google Scholar
Schubert, Glendon A. 1977. “Political Culture and Judicial Ideology: Some Cross-Cultural and Subcultural Comparisons.” Comparative Political Studies 9 (4): 363–408.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schwartz, Herman. 1998. “Eastern Europe's Constitutional Courts.” Journal of Democracy 9 (4): 100–114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Segal, Jeffrey A., and Spaeth, Harold J.. 2002. The Supreme Court and the Attitudinal Model Revisited. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shapiro, Martin. 1986. Courts: A Comparative and Political Analysis. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Sisk, Gregory C., Heise, Michael, and Morriss, Andrew P.. 1998. “Charting the Influences on the Judicial Mind: An Empirical Study of Judicial Reasoning.” New York University Law Review 73 (5): 1377–1500.Google Scholar
Slotnick, Elliot. 1984. “Judicial Selection Systems and Nomination Outcomes: Does the Process Make a Difference?” American Politics Quarterly 12 (2): 225–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smithey, Shannon Ishiyama, and Ishiyama, John. 2000. “Judicious Choices: Designing Courts in Post-Communist Politics.” Communist and Post-Communist Studies 33 (2): 163–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smithey, Shannon Ishiyama, and Ishiyama, John. 2002. “Judicial Activism in Post-Communist Politics.” Law and Society Review 36 (4): 719–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Songer, Donald R., and Crews-Meyer, Kelley A.. 2000. “Does Judge Gender Matter? Decision Making in State Supreme Courts.” Social Science Quarterly 81 (3): 750–62.Google Scholar
Songer, Donald R., Davis, Sue, and Haire, Susan. 1994. “A Reappraisal of Diversification in the Federal Courts: Gender Effects in the Courts of Appeals.” Journal of Politics 56 (2): 425–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tate, C. Neal. 1981. “Personal Attribute Models of the Voting Behavior of U.S. Supreme Court Justices: Liberalism in Civil Liberties and Economics Decisions, 1946–1978.” American Political Science Review 75 (2): 355–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tate, C. Neal, and Handberg, Roger. 1991. “Time Binding and Theory Building in Personal Attribute Models of Supreme Court Voting Behavior, 1916–88.” American Journal of Political Science 35 (2): 460–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tomz, Michael, Wittenberg, Jason, and King, Gary. 2003. “CLARIFY: Software for Interpreting and Presenting Statistical Results.” Version 2.1. Stanford University, University of Wisconsin, and Harvard University. January 5. Available at http://gking.harvard.edu/ (May 12, 2007).Google Scholar
Valdini, Melody Ellis. 2005. “Candidate Gender as an Information Shortcut: A Cross-National Analysis of the Effects of Political Environments.” Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago.Google Scholar
Vengroff, Richard, Nyiri, Zsolt, and Fugiero, Melissa. 2003. “Electoral System and Gender Representation in Sub-National Legislatures: Is There a National–Sub-national Gender Gap?” Political Research Quarterly 56 (2): 163–73.Google Scholar
Walker, Thomas G., and Barrow, Deborah J.. 1985. “The Diversification of the Federal Bench: Policy and Process Ramifications.” Journal of Politics 47 (2): 596–617.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Westergren, Sarah. 2004. “Gender Effects in the Courts of Appeals Revisited: The Data Since 1994.” Georgetown Law Journal 92 (3): 689–708.Google Scholar
Williams, Margaret S. 2007. “Women Judges: Accession at the State Court Level.” Social Science Quarterly 88 (5): 1192–1204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wood, Rebecca. 2007. “A Framework for Comparative Judicial Selection Research.” Prepared for presentation at the 2007 Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago.Google Scholar