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Gender and Decision-Making in the Federal Courts: Testing the Critical Mass Theory
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Gender and Decision-Making in the Federal Courts:
Testing the Critical Mass Theory
by
Kenneth L. Manning
Associate Professor of Political Science University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth
Dartmouth, MA 02747-2300
Telephone: 508 999-8366
Fax: 508 999-8819
Email: ## email not listed ##
and
Robert A. Carp
Professor of Political Science
University of Houston
Houston, TX 77204-3474
Telephone: 713 743-4008
Fax: 713 743-3978
Email: ## email not listed ##
______________________
Paper presented at the 2005 annual meeting of the
American Political Science Association
Washington, DC
September 1-4, 2005
______________________
Abstract
The role of gender in influencing judicial behavior has been the subject of much public law scholarship. The results of these studies, however, have been mixed. At the same time, a body of scholarship has suggested that the presence of a “critical mass” of women may be necessary before substantive behavioral differences emerge. We analyzed 42,226 cases handed down by 1,350 judges over a 28-year span, from 1977 to 2004. Our results indicate that women jurists exhibit distinctive behavior when there is a critical mass of women on a court, deciding cases in a more liberal fashion than their fellow male partisans. When there is no critical mass of women on a court, however, we find that women and men decide cases in a similar manner.
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| | Authors: Manning, Kenneth. |
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Gender and Decision-Making in the Federal Courts:
Testing the Critical Mass Theory
by
Kenneth L. Manning
Associate Professor of Political Science
University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth
Dartmouth, MA 02747-2300
Telephone: 508 999-8366
Fax: 508 999-8819
Email: ## email not listed ##
and
Robert A. Carp
Professor of Political Science
University of Houston
Houston, TX 77204-3474
Telephone: 713 743-4008
Fax: 713 743-3978
Email: ## email not listed ##
______________________
Paper presented at the 2005 annual meeting of the
American Political Science Association
Washington, DC
September 1-4, 2005
______________________
Abstract
The role of gender in influencing judicial behavior has been the subject of much public law
scholarship. The results of these studies, however, have been mixed. At the same time, a body
of scholarship has suggested that the presence of a “critical mass” of women may be necessary
before substantive behavioral differences emerge. We analyzed 42,226 cases handed down by
1,350 judges over a 28-year span, from 1977 to 2004. Our results indicate that women jurists
exhibit distinctive behavior when there is a critical mass of women on a court, deciding cases in
a more liberal fashion than their fellow male partisans. When there is no critical mass of women
on a court, however, we find that women and men decide cases in a similar manner.
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