Election of women judges is a certain sign of social progress
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share thisFor nearly two decades women have graduated from U.S. law schools in roughly the same numbers as men. Yet they have not risen through the ranks of the profession in the same proportion. According to a survey by the National Association of Women Lawyers, for example, women comprise just 16 percent of the equity partners in the nation's largest law firms, 15 percent of those firms' management committees and 6 percent of their managing partners.
It was obvious in Pennsylvania Tuesday that voters share none of the big law firms' reticence about advancing women to the highest levels of the court system.
Voters in Bradford County elected Maureen Beirne, who was appointed to fill the vacancy created when voters previously rejected Judge John Mott. She is the first woman elected to the local court. Down the pike, so-to-speak, voters in Lackawanna County elected Margaret Bisignani Moyle to a new judgeship, while voters in Luzerne County elected Tina Polachek Gartley to one of two open seats.
In Western Pennsylvania, two counties elected their first women judges. Fayette County District Attorney Nancy Vernon won a judicial seat, as did attorney Linda Fleming in Cambria County.
Statewide, Republican candidates swept the decided appellate court races, but their party affiliation might not have been as significant as their gender. Women won or were ahead in six of the seven races.
Judge Joan Orie Melvin of the Superior Court won an open Supreme Court seat. Attorney Patricia McCullough won a seat on the Commonwealth Court. Allegheny County Judge Judy Olson and Tioga County attorney Sallie Mundy won Superior Court seats. Judges Paula Ott, of Chester County, and Anne Lazarus, of Philadelphia, were ahead in the races for the other two seats.
Election of so many women judges is a certain sign of social progress. It remains to be seen whether the trend bounces back into the halls of the nation's most powerful law firms.
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