Group Selection and Opportunities for Gender Diversity in the Judiciary

In the legislative context, there is a persistent empirical relationship between party-list proportional electoral systems and higher levels of gender diversity in office. I apply the logic of party-list selection to the judicial context and argue that the selection of judges as pairs or in groups may facilitate the process of gender diversification on courts by making it easier – or at least more likely – for observers to notice and be critical of gender disparity in judicial selection. Evidence from a survey experiment fielded in the United States demonstrates that observers are more likely to notice and are more critical of gender homogeneity when judges are selected as a group rather than one-by-one. These micro-foundations demonstrate that the logic of party-list PR in the legislative context may also apply to the judicial context, suggesting that one way to improve prospects of judicial diversity could be re-structuring the timing of judicial turnover.