Institutional Collaboration:  Chr. Michelsen Institute, Bergen; Overseas Development Institute (ODI), London; Department of Comparative Politics, University of Bergen; CIESAS, Mexico

Participants: Elin Skaar (Project Coordinator), Pilar Domingo,  Rachel Sieder, Ruth Rubio Marin, Aslak Orre, Antonio De Lauri, Siri Gloppen, Torunn Wimpelmann

Funded by: Norwegian Research Council, NorGlobal

Dates: January 2017 – December 2020

In long-established western democracies, women have made inroads as judges only during the past few decades. In post-conflict and transitional developing countries, however, they constitute an increasingly larger proportion of judges. Why is this so? Situations of political rupture generally create new opportunity structures; some may favour the entry of women into public positions of power. Post-conflict assistance often includes gender friendly rule of law reforms, and the conflict itself may have placed rights issues in focus. How these conditions affect women’s access to, and utilization of, positions of judicial power has not received much attention in the literature. This project asks: What are the main pathways of women judges to the bench? What are the gendered experiences of women on the bench? How and in what ways does having more women on the bench impact on judicial outcomes? In essence, what difference do women judges make?