Ensuring diversity and gender equality in judicial positions, including at senior levels, can reduce the barriers women faced in accessing justice, and increase their willingness to approach the legal system. Improving the representativeness and diversity of the judiciary can also support its quality, independence, impartiality and integrity (OECD, 2022). Overall, ensuring a gender-balanced judicial leadership remains a key governance issue in OECD countries as it relates to fairness, transparency, and the effectiveness of the rule of law (OECD,2019).
Women’s share of the overall judiciary averaged 57.2% in OECD countries in 2020, showing a slight increase of 3.9 percentage points compared to 2014 (Figure 12.7). Women occupied at least 30% of judicial positions in all OECD countries, albeit with wide variations – ranging from 81% in Latvia to 31% in the United Kingdom. In 8 out of 23 OECD countries with available data, the share has risen by 5 p.p. or more since 2014, with the largest increase seen in Türkiye (13 p.p.). The share of women judges remained the same in Austria, Hungary, and the Slovak Republic, and fell marginally in the Czech Republic (1 p.p.). However, gender balance among judges should also be considered in the context of inherent features of national legal systems and women’s professional development patterns. For example, there are differences between different legal systems: in civil law systems, women can be recruited directly from law schools before they face possible career disruptions, while in common law systems, women face a statutory requirement of at least five or seven years post-qualification experience before they are legally qualified for posts in the judiciary.
In recent years, OECD countries have made progress in women’s representation at the supreme court level, with a significant increase of 7 p.p. between 2014 and 2020 (Figure 12.9). However, the share of women in high-level courts continue to be small, with significant differences at the supreme court level. While women make-up an average of 61.8% of judicial positions in first instance courts, and 54.3% in second instance ones, as of 2020, they occupied only 40% of the positions in supreme courts (Figure 12.8). Although there is a great deal of variation in judicial recruitment systems among OECD countries, the smaller share of judicial positions occupied by women in high-level courts can be partly explained by challenges such as gender stereotypes expressed in behaviors and attitudes embodied by judicial staff and authorities, limited professional development opportunities for women in the legal profession, work-life balance challenges, and mobility and relocation barriers (OECD, 2019).
