Date on Senior Honors Thesis

5-2017

Document Type

Senior Honors Thesis

Degree Name

B.A.

Department

Political Science

Degree Program

College of Arts and Sciences

Author's Keywords

race; gender; appellate courts

Abstract

Beginning with President Carter and continuing with each successive president, the federal bench has become more diverse. This has caused scholars to turn their attention to how personal characteristics such as race and sex affect judging. Understanding the effects of gender and race on judging is crucial because white female and minority female judges may bring a different perspective to the bench than their male counterparts due to their shared experiences with discrimination. To fill a gap in the literature, this study examines the impact of women in terms of legal influence and voting behavior. The results demonstrate that women are cited more often than their male counterparts when they author sex discrimination cases but not abortion or cases concerning the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA cases). However, I do not find significant differences in legal influence or voting behavior in any area when white women and minority women are compared. In sex discrimination and abortion cases, female judges’ voting behavior was similar to their same-party male colleagues. Only in ADA cases did I find Republican women were more liberal than their male counterparts.

Lay Summary

Beginning with President Carter and continuing with each successive president, the federal bench has become more diverse. Researchers and scholars have turned their attention to how personal characteristics such as race and sex affect judging. Understanding the effects of gender and race on judging is crucial because white female and minority female judges may bring a different perspective to the bench than their male counterparts due to their shared experiences with discrimination. To fill a gap in the literature, this study examines the impact of women in terms of legal influence (measured by citations of majority opinions) and voting behavior. The results demonstrate that women are cited more often than their male counterparts when they author sex discrimination cases but not abortion or ADA cases. However, I do not find significant differences in legal influence or voting behavior in any area when white women and minority women are compared. In sex discrimination and abortion cases, female judges’ voting behavior was similar to their same-party male colleagues. Only in ADA cases did I find Republican women were more liberal than their male counterparts. These results offer insight into the importance of studying race and gender (and their intersection) in the federal judiciary system. With more minorities gaining seats on the federal bench, judicial policy-making could become more dynamic because there are more viewpoints to consider.

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