'A Good Jugde Has No Sex'? A typology on gender representation in the judiciary

Increased gender balance on the bench is promoted across the globe, as judiciaries have long been dominated by men. This seems, however, to conflict with the judicial ideal that a judge is impartial and does not represent anyone. The article explores concepts of representation in relation to women’s place and role on the bench. It develops a typology of different ways in which judicial gender representation is conceived and justified, which has previously been lacking in the literature on gendered judicial representation. This is done through an analysis of perceptions and conceptions of gender representation in the Haitian judiciary, in dialogue with the existing literature on representation. Haiti is interesting because, being one the most fragile and less gender equal countries in the world, it represents a type of case that is very different from those cases which representation theory usually builds on. Furthermore, Haitian women have only recently been appointed to judgeship in significant numbers and there has been an increasing focus on gender issues in the judiciary, making questions of gender and representation salient issues in the Haitian judiciary. Through in-depth interviews with fifty magistrates (judges and prosecutors) and twenty other key informants, the study provides an inside and outside perspective on judicial gender representation in Haiti. While some conceptions articulate a tension between representation and neutrality in relation to judicial decision-making, the study argues that, if one applies a broader perspective, gender representation on the bench is not only consistent with the ideal of judicial impartiality, but also constitutive of it. The study contributes to the wider literature on gender and representation by theorizing the concept of gender representation in the judiciary, and how contextual and institutional factors may shape the representative role of women judges.