Recruitment and Careers at Russian Courts: Male and Female Paths to Judgeship

• In Event: Gender, Crime and Justice in the History of Russia, 1700-2000 - II

Abstract

Russian judicial system seems to be dominated by women. More than half of all justices are women and a vast majority of other legal professionals employed at courts as well as administrative workers are also female. At the same time, the higher the position is in the judicial hierarchy (judge of a higher court, chair or deputy chair of a court), the more men occupy such positions. Based on biographical interviews with judges and poll data, this paper considers the mechanisms for such selective inequality.
Data shows that there are two distinct paths into judiciary and also two different career trajectories within judicial system – one typically taken by women, and another almost exclusively reserved for men. Women enter the judicial system early in the beginning of their careers; usually they start at administrative position before graduating college, and then, after obtaining legal training, proceed as legal professionals at courts (e.g. a personal accomplice for a judge); after completing a required 5-year period of legal service they apply for a position of a judge in their early thirties. Such judges, with experience limited to 5 to 10 years of low-paid routine work within judicial system, are rarely promoted further. Another path is typically taken by legal professionals much later in their careers. After serving for many years in law enforcement, government of corporation, such professional gets informally invited to apply for judgeship by a head of the court, usually through networks acquired during previous employment, and joins judiciary as an experienced professional with vast professional network. Such judges are from the start get assigned to sit on important cases and usually quickly get promoted to higher courts or to the position of a chair.
The paper also suggests that the predominantly female composition of court personnel, including judges, is indicative not of gender equality but of low status of Russian judges and lack of judicial independence

Author

• Ella Paneyakh, European U at St. Petersburg (Russia)