Document Type

Article

Disciplines

International Law

Abstract

The convictions that it profoundly matters who judges are, what they believe about the world, and what their approach to law and judging is motivates my work. My work as a scholar of comparative pregnancy discrimination, the European Court of Justice, judicial selection, gender and judging, sexual assault, and now mass incarceration further strengthens that position; as does my professional service helping to establish a collaborative research network on Gender and Judging of more than 140 scholars from more than 17 countries.1 The resolute position that who judges are matters informs my activism ranging from working on civil rights oversight of the Equal Opportunities Commission for the U.S. Congress, serving as a court monitor in cases of domestic violence and sexual assault, working with the National and International Associations of Women Judges and women judges across Latin America and in Kenya, helping establish a national movement called Courts Matter,2 advising the Obama Administration on judicial selection, working for US AID with women judges in Tbilisi, Georgia and Cairo, Egypt, and conducting judicial education for judges in Louisiana. Lastly, my enjoyment of popular culture reinforces that position. Whether it is reading Paula Sharpe's novel, Crows Over a Wheatfield3 -which greatly influenced me at a critical career juncture-or watching Judging Amy, Spiral, The Good Wife, The Good Fight; and reading many mysteries and watching way too many crime series on television. I offer this context so as to leave no doubt about my commitment to feminist social change or the importance of gender. I argue that an anti-essentialist and intersectional approach to gender and judging requires that we consider the question of whether women judges decide cases differently from men as settled in the negative 4 and turn our attention to gender and feminist judging, or perhaps, gender-just judging. 5 Such an approach would not only improve the accumulation of knowledge about judging, courts, and law, but it will strengthen our ability to advocate for a diverse and representative judiciary.

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