Does judge gender matter? Decision making in state supreme courts

Objective. Prior research on the role of judge gender in voting behavior has led to competing theories about the impact of women judges. The purpose of this research is to determine whether female judges vote differently than their male colleagues. Methods. In an attempt to determine whether or not women judges are generally more willing to support the liberal position, this research examines the voting behavior of state supreme court judges from 1982 through 1993 in two substantive areas of law not generally identified as "women's issues": obscenity and death penalty sentencing. The data include the universe of published obscenity decisions in that period and a random sample of death penalty decisions. The impact of judge gender is assessed through use of a logistic regression model. Results. Controlling for party and region, we find that women judges in state supreme courts tend to vote more liberally than their male counterparts in both death penalty and obscenity cases. Equally important, the presence of a woman on state supreme courts tends to increase the probability that male judges will also support the liberal position. Conclusions. The gender effects discovered do not appear to be an artifact of state ideology or the result of socialization patterns common to all women.