Contagious Representation: Women’s Political Representation in Democracies around the World

4. Gender and Cross-National Courts

60 > 61 Given the importance of high courts to democracy itself, this range raises the question of what explains the variation. In this chapter, we show that, in part, variation in the level of women’s representation in other democratic institutions explains the variation in women’s high court representation. In this case, we find evidence that women ’s legislative representation is correlated with the number of seats held by women on high courts. Our results, however, are limited to more developed countries. This suggests that the impact of contagion is less robust when explaining women’s court representation. This chapter proceeds as follows. First, we review the existing literature on women’s representation on courts. Here we demonstrate how the logic that explains the election of women to legislatures or as a chief executive differs from the logic that explains women’s participation on courts. Second, we explain why we believe that contagion will affect women’s representation on courts. In particular, we examine the role of women’s legislative representation . Third, we undertake a statistical analysis of female court representation. We extend this analysis by a detailed discussion of women’s representation on courts in Japan, which demonstrates the importance of contagion as a predictor of women’s accession to seats on courts. Finally, we conclude with a discussion of the relevance of our analysis to our contagion argument with regard to courts. Factors Affecting Representation on the Bench The factors that influence women’s representation on high courts are largely drawn from those that influence women’s representation in other political institutions. Social, economic, and political factors all influence women’s representation on the bench. Perhaps most significant, however, is the potential for contagion to influence women’s service on the bench. Judiciaries, unlike many other political offices, are often chosen by the members of the other two branches of government. This increased opportunity to influence the composition of an institution of government makes the representation of women in executive and legislative positions all the more important. How these factors align to influence women’s representation on the courts is our next consideration. Other studies examining women’s representation, including those that specifically look at the courts, find that two main types of factors influence women’s representation: the characteristics of the person (called supply-side factors) and the characteristics of the institution or country (called demandside factors) (Williams and Thames 2008). While women’s experiences in 62 > 63 Not only are other countries diverse in their process for choosing judges for high courts, but they also vary in the extent to which they divide power among several high courts. The U.S. Supreme Court handles both constitutional and procedural issues that arise in the federal courts. Other countries, however, have separate courts for handling appeals from the lower courts, constitutional issues, and administrative issues. While division of the responsibilities of the judiciary creates more seats (and thus more opportunities ) for women, the representation of women across these institutions may not be even. Women may be better represented on less prestigious administrative courts than on the most prestigious constitutional courts, which may be without women (Anasagasti and Wuiame 1999; Kenney 1998/1999, 2002; Linehan 2001; Williams and Thames 2008). The variation in power and prestige of courts outside the United States (as documented in the works of Epstein, Knight, and Shvetsova 2001; Herron and Randazzo 2003; Schwartz 1998; Smithey and Ishiyama 2000, 2002) may influence women’s representation on the bench. Of course, the presence of a transnational judiciary marks the ultimate step in a judicial career ladder for many countries, with judges serving on courts within a country as a stepping stone to the transnational court (Kenney 2002). Why Contagion Is Important Both variations in the type of court and variations in selection mechanisms create the potential for contagion to be a factor influencing women’s representation on high courts. Judges are chosen by groups that have become increasingly diverse over time. In part, this diversity is driven by the use of quotas and by a greater awareness of the importance of women’s representation in political life. It is therefore not only possible but likely that increased diversity in other political institutions and the presence of quota laws will increase women’s representation on the bench, as well. The effect of a more diverse selecting body is obvious; as women’s numbers in...