Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-vpsfw Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-17T07:41:01.309Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Double-Bind on the Bench: Citizen Perceptions of Judge Gender and the Court

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 June 2015

Kjersten Nelson
Kjersten Nelson*
Affiliation:
North Dakota State University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Scholars of gender and politics have long discussed the various manifestations of the “double-bind” for women who seek political leadership. Using a survey experiment with a nationally representative sample, this article examines whether this double-bind exists for female judges. The study reveals that while gender stereotypes are not uniformly applied to female judges, women on the bench are assessed differently in terms of their empathy and knowledge under certain circumstances. The article then discusses the potential implications of these gendered assessments for perceptions of the court, its actions, and women who aspire to judicial roles.

Type
Research Article
Information
Politics & Gender , Volume 11 , Issue 2 , June 2015 , pp. 235 - 264
Copyright
Copyright © The Women and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Abrams, Kathryn. 2010. “Dean's Lecture Series: Empathy and Experience in the Sotomayor Hearings.” Ohio Northern University Law Review 36: 263.Google Scholar
Alexander, Deborah, and Andersen, Kristi. 1993. “Gender as a Factor in the Attribution of Leadership Traits.” Political Research Quarterly 46 (3): 527–45.Google Scholar
Averill, James R. 1997. “The Emotions: An Integrative Approach.” In Handbook of Personality Psychology, ed. Hogan, Robert, Johnson, John, and Briggs, Stephen. San Diego, CA: Academic Press, 513–41.Google Scholar
Beggs, Joyce M., and Doolittle, Dorothy D.. 1993. “Perceptions Now and Then of Occupational Sex Typing: A Replication of Shinar's 1975 Study.” Journal of Applied Social Psychology 23 (17): 1435–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bethlehem, Jelke. 2010. “Selection Bias in Web Surveys.” International Statistical Review 78 (2): 161–88.Google Scholar
Boyd, Christina L., Epstein, Lee, and Martin, Andrew D.. 2010. “Untangling the Causal Effects of Sex on Judging.” American Journal of Political Science 54 (2): 389–411.Google Scholar
Brooks, Deborah Jordan. 2011. “Testing the Double Standard for Candidate Emotionality: Voter Reactions to the Tears and Anger of Male and Female Politicians.” Journal of Politics 73 (2): 597–615.Google Scholar
Brooks, Deborah Jordan. 2013. He Runs, She Runs. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Burrell, Barbara. 1994. A Woman's Place Is in the House: Campaigning for Congress in the Feminist Era. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Caldeira, Greogry A. 1987. “Public Opinion and the U.S. Supreme Court: FDR's Court-Packing Plan.” American Political Science Review 81 (4): 1139–53.Google Scholar
Caldeira, Gregory A., and Gibson, James L.. 1992. “The Etiology of Public Support for the Supreme Court.” American Journal of Political Science 36 (3): 635–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, Tom S. 2009. “The Separation of Powers, Court Curbing, and Judicial Legitimacy.” American Journal of Political Science 53 (4): 971–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clinton, William J. 1996. “Remarks to Colorado Democrats in Denver, Colorado.” Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents 32 (44): 2241–45. http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/granule/WCPD-1996-11-04/WCPD-1996-11-04-Pg2241/content-detail.html (accessed March 3, 2015).Google Scholar
C-SPAN. 2009. “New C-SPAN/Penn, Schoen and Berland Associates Poll: What Americans Know About the U.S. Supreme Court and Want Changed About the Court.” http://supremecourt.c-span.org/assets/pdf/CSPANSupremeCourtPollSept242009.pdf (accessed March 3, 2015).Google Scholar
Davis, Sue. 1992. “Do Women Judges Speak ‘In a Different Voice?’ Carol Gilligan, Feminist Legal Theory, and the Ninth Circuit.” Wisconsin Women's Law Journal 8: 143–73.Google Scholar
Dolan, Kathleen. 1998. “Voting for Women in the ‘Year of the Woman.’” American Journal of Political Science 42 (1): 272–93.Google Scholar
Dolan, Kathleen. 2008. “Is There a ‘Gender Affinity Effect’ in American Politics? Information, Affect, and Candidate Sex in U.S. House Elections.” Political Research Quarterly 61 (1): 79–89.Google Scholar
Dolan, Kathleen. 2010. “The Impact of Gender Stereotyped Evaluations on Support for Women Candidates.” Political Behavior 32 (1): 69–88.Google Scholar
Dolan, Kathleen. 2012. “Political Gender Stereotypes and Voting for Women Candidates in 2010.” Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Southern Political Science Association, New Orleans, LA.Google Scholar
Eagly, Alice H., and Karau, Steven J.. 2002. “Role Congruity Theory of Prejudice toward Female Leaders.” Psychological Review 109 (3): 573–98.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ford, William. 2006. “The Polls—Supreme Court Awareness.” http://www.elsblog.org/the_empirical_legal_studi/2006/02/supreme_court_a.html (accessed March 3, 2015).Google Scholar
Funk, Carolyn L. 1999. “Bringing the Candidate into Models of Candidate Evaluation.” Journal of Politics 61 (3): 700–20.Google Scholar
Gibson, James L., and Caldeira, Gregory A.. 2009. Citizens, Courts, and Confirmations: Positivity Theory and the Judgments of the American People. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldman, Sheldon, Schiavoni, Sara, and Slotnick, Elliot. 2009. “W. Bush's Judicial Legacy.” Judicature 92 (6): 258–88.Google Scholar
Goldman, Sheldon, Slotnick, Elliot, and Schiavoni, Sara. 2011. “Obama's Judiciary at Midterm.” Judicature 94 (6): 262–303.Google Scholar
Hess, Ursula, Adams, Reginald B., and Kleck, Robert E.. 2005. “Who May Frown and Who Should Smile? Dominance, Affiliations, and Displays of Happiness and Anger.” Cognition and Emotion 19 (4): 515–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holbrook, Allyson. 2011. “Attitude Change Experiments in Political Science.” In Cambridge Handbook of Experimental Political Science, ed. Druckman, James N., Green, Donald P., Kuklinski, James H., and Lupia, Arthur. New York: Cambridge University Press, 141–54.Google Scholar
Huddy, Leonie, and Terkildsen, Nayda. 1993. “Gender Stereotypes and the Perception of Male and Female Candidates.” American Journal of Political Science 37 (1): 119–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jamieson, Kathleen Hall. 1995. Beyond the Double Bind. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kahn, Kim Fridkin. 1996. The Political Consequences of Being a Woman: How Stereotypes Influence the Conduct and Consequences of Political Campaigns. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Kenney, Sally J. 2013. Gender and Justice: Why Women in the Judiciary Really Matter. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Kinder, Donald. 1986. “Presidential Character Revisited.” In Political Cognition, ed. Lau, Richard R. and Sears, David O.. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
King, David C., and Matland, Richard E.. 2003. “Sex and the Grand Old Party: An Experimental Investigation of the Effect of Candidate Sex on Support for a Republican Candidate.” American Politics Research 31 (6): 595–612.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koch, Jeffrey W. 2000. “Do Citizens Apply Gender Stereotypes to Infer Candidates’ Ideological Orientations?” Journal of Politics 62 (2): 414–29.Google Scholar
Koch, Jeffrey W. 2002. “Gender Stereotypes and Citizens’ Impression of House Candidates Ideological Orientations.” American Journal of Political Science 46 (2): 453–62.Google Scholar
Koenig, Anne M., Eagly, Alice H., Mitchell, Abigail A., and Ristikari, Tiina. 2011. “Are Leader Stereotypes Masculine? A Meta-Analysis of Three Research Paradigms.” Psychological Bulletin 137 (4): 616–42.Google Scholar
Kritzer, Herbert M. 2001. “The Impact of Bush v. Gore on Public Perceptions and Knowledge of the Supreme Court.” Judicature 85 (1): 32–38.Google Scholar
LaFrance, Marianne, and Hecht, Marvin. 1999. “Option or Obligation to Smile: The Effects of Power and Gender on Facial Expression.” In The Social Context of Nonverbal Behavior, ed. Phillipot, Pierre, Feldman, Robert S., and Coats, Erik J.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 45–70.Google Scholar
LaFrance, Marianne, and Hecht, Marvin. 2000. “Gender and Smiling: A Meta-Analysis.” In Gender and Emotion: Social Psychological Perspectives, ed. Fischer, Agneta M.. New York and Paris: Cambridge University Press: 118–42.Google Scholar
Link, Michael W., Battaglia, Michael P., Frankel, Martin R., Osborn, Larry, and Mokdad, Ali H.. 2007. “Reaching the U.S. Cell Phone Generation: Comparison of Cell Phone Survey Results with an Ongoing Landline Telephone Survey.” Public Opinion Quarterly 71 (5): 814–39.Google Scholar
Mansbridge, Jane. 1999. “Should Blacks Represent Blacks and Women Represent Women? A Contingent ‘Yes.’” Journal of Politics 61 (3): 628–57.Google Scholar
Martin, Elaine, and Pyle, Barry. 2000. “Gender, Race, and Partisanship on the Michigan Supreme Court.” Albany Law Review 63 (4): 1205–36.Google Scholar
McDermott, Monika. L. 1997. “Voting Cues in Low-Information Elections: Candidate Gender as a Social Information Variable in Contemporary United States Elections.” American Journal of Political Science 41 (1): 270–83.Google Scholar
McDermott, Monika. L. 1998. “Race and Gender Cues in Low-Information Elections.” Political Research Quarterly 51 (4): 895–918.Google Scholar
Morton, Rebecca B., and Williams, Kenneth C.. 2008. “Experimentation in Political Science.” In The Oxford Handbook of Political Methodology, ed. Box-Steffensmeier, Janet M., Brady, Henry E., and Collier, David. New York: Oxford University Press, 339–56.Google Scholar
Sastre, Munoz, Teresa, Maria, Fouquereau, Evelyne, Igier, Valerie, Salvatore, Nadine, and Mullet, Etienne. 2000. “Perception of Occupational Gender Typing: A Replication on European Samples of Shinar's (1975) and Beggs and Doolittle's (1993) Studies.” Journal of Applied Social Psychology 30 (2): 430–41.Google Scholar
Norton, Noelle H. 1999. “Committee Influence over Controversial Policy: The Reproductive Policy Case.” Policy Studies Journal 27 (2): 203–16.Google Scholar
Marvin, Overby, L., Brown, Robert D., Bruce, John M., Smith, Charles E. Jr., and Winkle, John W. III. 2005. “Race, Political Empowerment, and Minority Perceptions of Judicial Fairness.” Social Science Quarterly 86 (2): 444–62.Google Scholar
Paolino, Phillip. 1995. “Group-Salient Issues and Group Representation: Support for Women Candidates in the 1992 Senate Elections.” American Journal of Political Science 39 (2): 294–313.Google Scholar
Pew Research Center. 2010. “The Invisible Court.” http://www.pewresearch.org/2010/08/03/the-invisible-court/ (accessed March 3, 2015).Google Scholar
Pitkin, Hanna. 1967. The Concept of Representation. Berkley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Prentice, Deborah A., and Carranza, Erica. 2002. “What Women and Men Should Be, Shouldn't Be, Are Allowed to Be, and Don't Have to Be: The Contents of Prescriptive Gender Stereotypes.” Psychology of Women Quarterly 26 (4): 269–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reddick, Malia, Nelson, Michael J., and Caufield, Rachel Paine. 2009. “Racial and Gender Diversity on State Courts: An AJS Study.” The Judges’ Journal 48 (3). http://www.judicialselection.com/uploads/documents/Racial_and_Gender_Diversity_on_Stat_8F60B84D96CC2.pdf (accessed March 3, 2015).Google Scholar
Rudman, Laurie, and Glick, Peter. 1999. “Feminized Management and Backlash toward Agentic Women: The Hidden Costs of a Kinder, Gentler Image of Middle Managers.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 77 (5): 1004–10.Google Scholar
Sanbonmatsu, Kira. 2002. “Gender Stereotypes and Vote Choice.” American Journal of Political Science 46 (1): 20–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sanbonmatsu, Kira, and Kathleen, Dolan. 2009. “Do Gender Stereotypes Transcend Party?” Political Research Quarterly 62 (3): 485–94.Google Scholar
Scherer, Nancy, and Curry, Brett. 2010. “Does Descriptive Race Representation Enhance Institutional Legitimacy? The Case of the U.S. Courts.” Journal of Politics 72 (1): 90–104.Google Scholar
Schneider, Monica C., and Bos, Angela L.. 2013. “Measuring Stereotypes of Female Politicians.” Political Psychology 35 (2): 245–66.Google Scholar
Sears, David. 1986. “College Sophomores in the Laboratory.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 51 (3): 515–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Segal, Jeffrey A., Westerland, Chad, and Lindquist, Stefanie A.. 2011. “Congress, the Supreme Court, and Judicial Review: Testing a Constitutional Separation of Powers Model.” American Journal of Political Science 55 (1): 89–104.Google Scholar
Segal, Jennifer A. 2000. “Representative Decision Making on the Federal Bench: Clinton's District Court Appointees.” Political Research Quarterly 53 (1): 137–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shapiro, Robert Y., and Mahajan, Harpreet. 1986. “Gender Differences in Policy Preferences: A Summary of Trends from the 1960s to the 1980s.” Public Opinion Quarterly 50 (1): 42–61.Google Scholar
Shinar, Eva H. 1975. “Sexual Stereotypes of Occupations.” Journal of Vocational Behavior 7 (1): 99–111.Google Scholar
Swers, Michele L. 1998. “Are Congresswomen More Likely to Vote for Women's Issue Bills Than Their Male Colleagues?” Legislative Studies Quarterly 23 (3): 435–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Swers, Michele L. 2002. The Difference Women Make. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Tucker, Clyde, Brick, J. Michael, and Meekins, Brian. 2007. “Household Telephone Service and Usage Patterns in the United States in 2004: Implications for Telephone Samples.” Public Opinion Quarterly 71 (1): 3–22.Google Scholar