Sexism and the Supreme Court

In the three weeks since President Obama’s nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, countless stories have emerged to shed light on the background, education and personality of the first potential Latina on the high court. However, these stories have increasingly focused not on Sotomayor’s experience. Rather, they have criticized Sotomayor’s temperament as a judge, calling her style “bullying,” “nasty” and “overly aggressive.” With more years on the bench than any previous Supreme Court nominee, Sotomayor’s experience offers not just hundreds of written opinions, but thousands of oral arguments. NPR’s Nina Totenberg referred to these arguments to question “Is Sonia Sotomayor Mean?”.

Referring to two tape-recorded oral arguments in important cases, Totenberg compared audio clips of questions asked by Sotomayor to those asked by her male colleagues, as well as to those of the men who would be her colleagues if she is confirmed for the Supreme Court.  As Judge Guido Calabresi, a former Yale Law School dean and Sotomayor’s mentor, confirmed, “I must say I found no difference at all. So I concluded that all that was going on was that there were some male lawyers who couldn’t stand being questioned toughly by a woman. It was sexism in its most obvious form.”

It is an all too familiar theme that even in the nation’s highest court women in positions of power in the workplace are considered meaner than their male colleagues who act the same way. As Feminisiting concludes, “Sotomayor is not meaner, just femaler” and it is this issue which WCF seeks to explore. By nominating, training and supporting more women to run for office, it is our hope that we may rectify the apparent inequality and discrimination which stem from women’s minority status in politics. While Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination is one very big step for women, it is clear that there are still many strides to make.

This post was submitted by Elizabeth Holland, one of WCF’s Summer 2009 Politics and Education Fellows.