SHOULD THE NEXT MEMBER OF THE U.S. SUPREME COURT BE A WOMAN?

Should the next member of the U.S. Supreme Court be a woman?

Executive Summary

This study will examine should the next member of the U.S. Supreme Court be a woman? Included are an overview of state court structure, the history and methods of judicial selection, and a discussion of court composition within the context of gender. This study's objective is to contribute to literature that fails to address how voters' use of stereotypes and perceptions of the judiciary combine to affect female judicial candidates. A survey will be employed to identify ideal qualities of judicial candidates and perceptions of female and male candidates about should the next member of the U.S. Supreme Court be a woman?.

Table of Content

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION4

Background4

Purpose of study5

Significance of Study6

Method7

Judicial Literature8

Stereotypes Literature11

Women's Candidacies12

Media and Stereotypes13

CHAPTER 2: STATE SUPREME COURT JUDGES AND JUDICIAL SELECTION17

Overview17

Who Becomes a Judge?19

History of Judicial Selection Methods in U. S.23

Structure of Ohio's Court System26

Ohio' s Judges29

Analysis of Judicial Selection Methods30

CHAPTER 3: GENDER STEREOTYPES AND THEIR EFFECTS ON WOMEN'S BIDS FOR OFFICE39

Judicial Campaigns42

Perceptions of the Office of the Judiciary45

Gender Stereotype48

Are Gender Stereotypes Always a Disadvantage?52

Which Women Run for Office?59

Who Votes for Women?59

CHAPTER 4: STUDY62

Research Hypotheses62

CHAPTER 5: RESULTS AND CONCLUSION64

Results64

Conclusion68

REFERENCES71

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Background

The history of the state- level judiciary will be examined from many facets. First, women's involvement in the judiciary will be summarized from an historical perspective, focusing on how they have been barred from the legal field in the past, and why women's current numbers continue to remain lower than men' s. I contend that gender stereotypes, both in the past and present, have combined with other factors to create barriers to women's participation in the judiciary.

Also discussed are the characteristics and qualifications of judges today. Although formal requirements for the office are few in numbers, informal traits shared by most judges have little to do with education or achievement and have created a mostly homogenous judiciary. The characteristics of those elected or nominated to a judicial position tend to be attained through political networks, or based on personal wealth. Women have only recently begun to integrate judicial politics enough to make political networks, and those in the legal field continue to earn less than their male counterparts, which could be a disadvantage when raising campaign funds. For these reasons and others, women as a group are still trying to gain the informal qualifications necessary for political office.

Before discussing state Supreme Courts, the focus of this paper, a background on the organization of the state court system as well as methods of selection for judges will be provided. Judicial selection has a long history of reform, with states adopting new methods of selection in order to eliminate the influence of politics and ensure judicial independence. Political bias has been identified as a negative result of campaigns, with only a few scholars recognizing that bias is unavoidable as a result of human nature. 1 Scholars and those in the legal field continue ...