How women rule: judicial empathy and administrative court rulings

This project examines the role of gender in judicial rulings. I ask why gender bias has only been found in certain types of cases and courts when identity-based theories would imply universal same-gender bias. I propose a theory which posits that gender differences may arise due to differences in empathy. I show that judicial empathy implies lenient rulings under certain conditions, such as when the effect of a ruling is difficult to quantify. In such cases, perceptions of the stakes to an adversely affected party may differ by gender even among people with similar training. I then test these implications using experiments, court data, and interviews. This work is the first to provide robust empirical support for judicial empathy across levels of training. My work uses mixed methods to analyze gender differences and biases. I compare judges of similar expertise by web-scraping case data to test for gender bias in administrative courts such as Social Security courts and the Federal Trade Commission. I complement the analysis of observational data by running online experiments with law students and a nationally representative sample of the public. Additionally, I interview current and former judges to bear witness to some of the experiences of becoming and remaining a judge. The use of statistical, experimental, and qualitative methods strengthens the argument of the project by allowing for a rich combination of statistical tests of quantitative data, the strong internal validity for causal inference offered by experiments, and the nuance and perspectives raised by interviews. External validity is strengthened by examining the question at all stages of a judge’s career.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Political Science

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2022

Author dc:creator

• Garcia, Luzmarina

Contributors dc:contributor

• Uribe-McGuire, Alicia B
• Wedeking, Justin
• Winters, Matthew
• Ksiazkiewicz, Aleksander
• Sharpe, Jamelle

• judicial politics
• identity politics
• political behavior
• administrative courts
• gender
• empathy

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2022 Luzmarina Garcia

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/115445

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F115445