Political Science, Department of
Date of this Version
2015
Citation
Published in Africa Today 62:2 (2015), pp. 45–69.
Abstract
In recent years, women have been selected as leaders of African judiciaries. This article identifies where and when women have become chief justices and presidents of constitutional courts from 1990 to 2014. We profile women from three civil-law and three common-law countries and find that the women selected meet or exceed the requirements for holding the highest position in the judiciary. We then explore why some African countries, but not others, have had female judicial leaders. We initially find that the selection method may be less important than the type of legal system, the commitment of gatekeepers, the end of major armed conflict, and regional diffusion in explaining why some countries have seen women rise to leadership positions in the judiciary.
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Comments
Copyright © 2015 Josephine Dawuni and Alice Kang. Published by Indiana University Press. Used by permission.