Female judges are more likely to vote in favor of plaintiffs in sexual discrimination cases, according to research by School of Law Prof. Lee Epstein.
About 20 Northwestern faculty members filled the Institute for Policy Research conference room Monday afternoon to hear Epstein present her study, “Causal Effect of Gender on Judicial Decisions.”
The study, which analyzes individual and panel effects on voting patterns, demonstrates the probability of judges voting in favor of the plaintiff in a Title VII sexual discrimination case increases by 10 percent when the judge is female, Epstein said. Men who are on a mixed panel with females are also more likely to vote in favor of the plaintiff, she said.
“The research is very interesting,” said Laurel Harbridge, a political science faculty member. “It was very easy to follow what the argument was and what her research was about. I would not say I was surprised by the results, but I think the results make sense if you think it through.”
Epstein, whose work focuses on the U.S. Supreme Court and judicial behavior, analyzed the voting patterns of appellate court judges in several cases within 13 different areas of law. These issue cases ranged from affirmative action to campaign finance between 1976 and 2002.
The study reveals that sexual discrimination is the only area in which gender affects voting patterns, even when considering cases involving abortion or capital punishment.
“I didn’t find the results surprising,” said Dorothy Roberts, a School of Law professor. “What I found more surprising is that gender didn’t have a greater effect in other cases.”
The research may not affect the overall pattern of decision making in the judges panel, but Epstein said her results may lead to an increase in the number of women on judging panels for court decisions. Of the cases studied, only 32 percent included one woman on a judging panel of three, and only 5 percent included two women. There were no cases that had three female judges.
Epstein said she plans to incorporate her findings in a book.
The presentation was part of a weekly colloquia series sponsored by the Institute for Policy Research to integrate research from various fields of social science, said Fay Lomax Cook, director of the institute. The presentations give faculty opportunities to come together as a community and discuss research.
“She’s doing fascinating work,” Cook said. “It was a wonderful talk, and she has an excellent way of presenting her research questions in a very clear and stimulating way.”
