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Gender Attitudes in the Judiciary: Evidence from US Circuit Courts

Author

Listed:
  • Elliott Ash
  • Daniel L. Chen
  • Arianna Ornaghi

Abstract

Do gender attitudes influence interactions with female judges in US circuit courts? In this paper, we propose a judge-specific measure of gender attitudes based on use of gender-stereotyped language in the judge's authored opinions. Exploiting quasi-random assignment of judges to cases and conditioning on judges' characteristics, we validate the measure showing that higher-slant judges vote more conservatively in gender-related cases. Higher-slant judges interact differently with female colleagues: they are more likely to reverse lower court decisions if the lower court judge is a woman than a man, are less likely to assign opinions to female judges, and cite fewer female-authored opinions.

Suggested Citation

  • Elliott Ash & Daniel L. Chen & Arianna Ornaghi, 2024. "Gender Attitudes in the Judiciary: Evidence from US Circuit Courts," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 16(1), pages 314-350, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aejapp:v:16:y:2024:i:1:p:314-50
    DOI: 10.1257/app.20210435
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Ganglmair, Bernhard & Helmers, Christian & Love, Brian J., 2024. "Do judicial assignments matter? Evidence from random case allocation," ZEW Discussion Papers 24-003, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    2. Lee Crawfurd & Christelle Saintis-Miller & Rory Todd, 2024. "Sexist textbooks: Automated analysis of gender bias in 1,255 books from 34 countries," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 19(10), pages 1-27, October.
    3. Grajzl, Peter & Murrell, Peter, 2025. "From status to contract? A macrohistory from early-modern English caselaw and print culture," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    4. Cagatay Bircan & Guido Friebel & Tristan Stahl, 2025. "Gender Promotion Gaps in Knowledge Work: The Role of Task Assignment in Teams," RFBerlin Discussion Paper Series 2518, ROCKWOOL Foundation Berlin (RFBerlin).
    5. Goto, Jun, 2026. "Career incentives and judicial independence: Evidence from the Indian lower judiciary," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    6. Markus Eberhardt & Giovanni Facchini & Valeria Rueda, 2023. "Gender Differences in Reference Letters: Evidence from the Economics Job Market," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 133(655), pages 2676-2708.
    7. Morris, J., 2023. "The Impact of Qualitative Reviews on Racial Statistical Discrimination: Evidence from Airbnb," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 2331, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    8. Sreevidya Ayyar & Uta Bolt & Eric French & Cormac O'Dea, 2024. "Imagine your life at 25: Gender conformity and later-life outcomes," IFS Working Papers W24/32, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    9. Achim Ahrens & Christian B. Hansen & Mark E. Schaffer & Thomas Wiemann, 2025. "Model Averaging and Double Machine Learning," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 40(3), pages 249-269, April.
    10. Gloria Gennaro & Elliott Ash, 2022. "Emotion and Reason in Political Language," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 132(643), pages 1037-1059.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • K41 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Litigation Process

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