Reimagining the Judiciary

Abstract

Abstract This book examines the factors that facilitate women’s representation on high courts worldwide. Diverse courts improve collective decision-making, strengthen public confidence in the judiciary and judicial decisions, and broaden access to the judicial process. Taken together, domestic and international factors explain women’s representation. These influences include judicial pipelines, domestic institutions including selection processes, and international expectations about gender equity. These explanations are evaluated using an original dataset, which includes both men and women appointed to high courts in all regions of the world. Pathways and processes are examined in-depth through five case studies: Canada, Colombia, Ireland, South Africa, and the United States. Taking a multi-method approach, the book combines insights from a cross-national, time-serial dataset with case studies drawing on fieldwork. Women are being appointed to high courts in greater numbers across every region of the world, and political and legal institutions provide context for where the gains are earliest and strongest. The findings suggest a chain of favorable promoters for women’s representation on high courts: new norms of gender equality encourage the reimagining of the judiciary; advocacy organizations challenge the status quo; and windows of opportunity enable change.