Women in the Federal Judiciary: Taking Stock

As the Senate is poised to start the first of 17 cloture votes on district court judges, and in the midst of Women’s History Month, we over at NWLC took a mental step back to look at the big picture of women in the federal judiciary. Yes, women make up 50% of the population and, for twenty-five years, nearly 50% of law students. But only 30% of federal judges, even today, are women.

And yes, over the past several years, the number of women on the federal bench has largely stagnated. We clearly have a long way to go before women, especially women of color, are adequately represented on our federal courts. But we should still celebrate when progress is being made.

The White House yesterday released an infographic on President Obama’s judicial nominees. 47% of President Obama’s confirmed judicial nominees have been women, and about 19% have been women of color. In addition, President Obama’s nominees have broken a number of long-overdue gender barriers. For example, there are three women on the Supreme Court for the first time in history (with the nomination of Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the first Hispanic Justice and the first Justice with a disability, and Justice Elena Kagan). Five of his district court nominees became the first woman to serve in their district. And one of his pending nominees, Judge Jacqueline Nguyen, would be the first Asian American woman to serve on a federal appellate court. (The infographic has information about other nominees who have added other long-overdue kinds of diversity to the federal courts as well).

These additions to the federal bench should be recognized as continued progress towards meaningful diversity on the bench, and the next step is to ensure yes-or-no votes on the nominees who are waiting for a vote. Right now, we have to opportunity to make a difference by making our voices heard: contact your Senators and tell them to allow yes-or-no votes on the 17 nominees who are scheduled for cloture votes, starting this afternoon at 2.