Gender on Trial: Women Plaintiffs, Lawyers, and Judges in State Civil Trials

• In Event: Equity and Justice in Trial Courts

Abstract

Research examining the role of gender in the courtroom explores whether or not female judges make decisions differently than their male counterparts (Haire and Moyer, 2015; Boyd, Epstein, and Martin, 2010; Kastellec, 2013; Collins and Moyer, 2008). Although researchers come to decidedly mixed conclusions, scholarship tends to find that women judges exhibit different decision-making patterns than their male counterparts, at least in cases involving “women’s issues.” Scholars studying the role of gender in the courts also explore how judges (Szmer, Saver, and Kaheny, 2010; Szmer et al., 2013) and juries (Hahn and Clayton 1996; Hodgson and Pryor 1984; McGuire and Bermant 197; Nelson 2004; Sumoski 2001) evaluate female attorneys. Many studies examining attorney gender find that women attorneys experience bias in the courtroom, which hurts their ability to successfully represent their clients. Still other scholars of gender and the courts investigate the extent to which case outcomes vary by litigant gender (Daniels and Marten 2001, 2004; Finley 2004; Koenig and Rustad 1995). These scholars argue that litigant itself is gendered, as men and women tend participate in different types of disputes, and consequently, receive different legal outcomes. Despite the growing and informative body of scholarship devoted to gender and judicial outcomes, scholars typically study either the gender of judges, attorneys, or litigants, without exploring how the gender of all three participants in the legal process might jointly affect outcomes. This research seeks to understand how gender affects women litigants’ ability to win their cases, while taking into account the gender of the judges and attorneys also participating in the case. Moreover, previous research suggests that women and men participate in different types of cases (Finley 2004), suggesting a need for researchers to first assess whether male and female litigants strategically participate in different types of cases. Using an original dataset of state civil jury verdicts in four states, I control for the possibility that men and women participate in different types of cases. I then model whether juries treat female litigants differently both in terms of their probability of winning their cases and the size and types of awards women litigants receive, while taking into account the gender of the lawyers and judges also participating in the case.

Author

• Tao L. Dumas, The College of New Jersey