Gender gap persists in the federal judiciary (e.g., 7 district courts have never had a female judge)

Posted on 02-25-2015 by Tracie Morris
Tags: #WomensEqualityDay , Latest Headlines & Stories

Some may think the issue of equality is like a broken record and, to an extent, it is. But it’s also an issue that we still deal with today. When it comes to gender equality, a gap still exists. According to National Women’s Law Center, here are some stats that suggest that the gender gap still exists in the federal judiciary. Here are some of the numbers:

• Once the confirmation of Associate Justice Elena Kagan is finished, the Supreme Court will have three women among its nine Justices for the first time in history. (Still only 1/3 of the members). Of the 112 Justices to ever to serve on the highest court in the country, only four have been women.
• Women account for almost 35% of the 172 active judges on the thirteen federal courts of appeal. However, when one breaks it down by circuit, representation by women on several of the individual courts is lower than on the courts of appeals overall:
  • Examples include the Third Circuit (23%) and the Eighth Circuit (18%).
  • Thirty-three percent of active United States district (or trial) court judges are women
    • The following seven district courts across the country still have never had a female judge
      • Middle District of Alabama
      • District of Idaho
      • Western District of Kentucky
      • Southern District of Mississippi
      • Western District of North Carolina
      • District of North Dakota
      • Eastern District of Oklahoma.

When it comes to women of color, the numbers decrease even more.

• Across the country there are 80 women of color serving as active federal judges, including 42 African-American women, 25 Hispanic women, 10 Asian-American women, 1 Native American woman, 1 woman of Hispanic and Asian descent, and 1 women of Hispanic and African-American descent.
• There are only 11 women of color on the U.S. courts of appeals. Of those 11 women, five of them sit on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, two sit on the DC Circuit, and one of them sits on each of the First, Fourth, Sixth and Seventh Circuits. As a result, there are seven federal courts of appeals without an active minority woman judge.

In order for gender diversity to increase the President will have to nominate people who add diversity to gender and race so the courts will provide better quality of justice in the future.

For entire article read here.

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