To What Extent does Judicial Independence Affect the Presence of Women in High Courts of Justice?: Latin America in Comparative Perspective

Contrary to what would be expected, the decline in judicial independence positively affects the representation of women in high courts. According to the theory I propose, this phenomenon is explained because, due to deficiencies in judicial independence, the political actors try to strategically reduce the costs derived from this phenomenon selecting more women in the benches of supreme or constitutional courts. Therefore, in labor markets with structural distortions such as those in Latin America, the presence of more supreme or constitutional women judges should not necessarily be interpreted as an reflect that political actors are interested in reducing asymmetries in decision-making arenas.