Why do women in the judiciary matter? The struggle for gender diversity in European courts

The exclusion of women from the legal world was one of the last gender inequalities to be outlawed in most Western democracies. Yet, it persisted in many countries despite the explicit constitutional prohibition of sex discrimination and the achievement of female suffrage.This contribution focuses on the measures adopted to increase the presence of women in the judiciary. Such measures have been traditionally conceived as a means of alleviating female exclusion from decision-making positions. But, at the same time, they can be also considered as a way to raise gender awareness in the courts and therefore counteract gender stereotyping and promote gender justice. Both these results are, in turn, a way to reduce the sense of isolation of courts from the community they serve and enhance the acceptability of judicial decisions.