ECPG Special Issue: Women on the Bench: On Access, Experiences, and the Roles of Women Judges in Fragile States (Vol 9, Issue 1) 2026

In long-established western democracies, women have made inroads as judges only during the past few decades. In post-conflict and transitional developing countries, however, they constitute an increasingly larger proportion of judges. Why is this so? Situations of political rupture generally create new opportunity structures; some may favour the entry of women into public positions of power. Post-conflict assistance often includes gender friendly rule of law reforms, and the conflict itself may have placed rights issues in focus. How these conditions affect women’s access to, and utilization of, positions of judicial power has not received much attention in the literature.

This themed issue asks: What are the main pathways of women judges to the bench? What are the gendered experiences of women on the bench? Drawing on five in-depth country case studies (Afghanistan, Angola, Guatemala, Haiti, and Uganda), this themed issue explores the gendered experiences of accessing and exercising judicial office and career progression in courts within the context of state fragility. This includes analysing the barriers that women encounter when trying to access lower and higher courts; the factors that enable progress on the gender balance in the judiciary; and progression towards higher level appointments. It also includes analysing how women judges navigate gender discriminatory norms in judicial office and reflecting on the possible representative role that women judges may play – despite the judicial ideal of the “neutral” judge.