Publication details
Gender, Informality and Courts: Mapping Theoretical Approaches
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| Year of publication | 2024 |
| Type | Chapter of a book |
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| Description | Many judiciaries in the world struggle with representation of women on the bench. Even in countries that invested a lot of energy into increasing the diversity of the judiciary the situation has improved only incrementally. At the same, in those countries where women judges outnumber their male colleagues, women still fail to be represented in the positions of power – at the apex courts, at judicial councils, among court presidents and other crucial positions within judicial governance. This may undermine trust and legitimacy of the judiciary. Much of the existing research that tackles this problem focuses on formal institutions. Yet, the problem often lies elsewhere as it is informal institutions that might have more significant repercussions for horizontal and vertical gender segregation in judicial governance. The aim of this chapter is three-fold. First, it analyses two dominant theoretical approaches (neo-institutionalism, including feminist institutionalism, and relational perspective) on how to study gendered informal practices and networks affecting the judiciary. Second, it identifies informal institutions and informal networks that hold women back in selection and promotion of judges that hamper or improve the role of women in judicial governance. Third, it reflects on the methods that are used to study the role of gender in informal judicial institutions and proposes new avenues for further research. |
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