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Judicial Reshuffles and Women Justices in Latin America
Author(s) -
Arana Araya Ignacio,
Hughes Melanie M.,
PérezLiñán Aníbal
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
american journal of political science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.347
H-Index - 170
eISSN - 1540-5907
pISSN - 0092-5853
DOI - 10.1111/ajps.12543
Subject(s) - nomination , latin americans , diversification (marketing strategy) , politics , political science , argument (complex analysis) , path analysis (statistics) , demographic economics , law , economics , business , biochemistry , chemistry , statistics , mathematics , marketing
Can weak judicial institutions facilitate the advancement of women to the high courts? We explore the relationship between weak institutions and gender diversification by analyzing the consequences of judicial reshuffles in Latin America. Our theory predicts that institutional disruptions will facilitate the appointment of women justices, but only when left parties control the nomination process. We test this argument using difference‐in‐differences and dynamic panel models for 18 Latin American countries between 1961 and 2014. The analysis offers support for our hypothesis, but gains in gender diversification are modest in size and hard to sustain over time. Political reshuffles may produce short‐term advances for women in the judiciary, but they do not represent a path to substantive progress in gender equality.