Vision of an All-Female Supreme Court

By Betsy Froiland ‘22

Ruth Bader Ginsburg notoriously said, “there will be enough women on the Supreme Court when there are nine.” Ginsburg’s dream seems very optimistic, but there certainly have been hopeful prospects for women in politics in recent years. 2018 was dubbed the “Year of the Woman,” largely due to the success of female Democratic candidates in the midterm elections. However, even though voters elected more women into office in 2018 than ever before, only 24% of seats in Congress are occupied by women today, according to The New York Times. And the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court in the fall of last year was a painful reminder of the persistence of misogyny in Washington.

At the federal level, no branch of government is even close to representing women proportionately to men, let alone being female-dominated. But at the state level, there are a few success stories. The Wisconsin Supreme Court is one of the very few state supreme courts across the country and throughout history to be majority female. Six out of the seven justices serving on the court today are women; each of them succeeded a man. Not long ago, it was newsworthy for even one women to sit on a state supreme court. In 1980, there were only fourteen female state supreme court justices across the entire fifty states. Thus, the existence of a state supreme court with six out of seven female justices is historically significant.

Justice Rebecca Dallet, the most recent addition to the court, was elected in April of 2018, defeating her male competitor by a staggering margin. I interviewed Justice Dallet to talk about the state of women in politics and the work that lies ahead. When talking to Justice Dallet about the almost all-female Wisconsin Supreme Court, her tone conveyed both excitement and the sense that it’s about time. She said, “we’re an equal participant in this world and we’re affected equally by laws, so we should have an equal foot on the table.” 

Although the Supreme Court has had success in representing women, Justice Dallet pointed out that the state’s judiciary as a whole is still lagging behind. Only about 25% of the state’s judiciary is female. It’s not the case that women are less qualified to be judges than their male counterparts; in fact, Justice Dallet noted that women make up over 50% of law school students today. So why is there such a stark disparity in gender representation in the judiciary and in politics in general?

Dallet attributed the gender gap in politics today largely to societal expectations for women. She noted that women are often tied down with familial responsibility, as the role of housekeeper and caretaker is often defaulted to women. Due to societal gender roles and expectations for women, Dallet argued that it’s a lot harder for women to step up and run for office. Justice Dallet said that women, as opposed to men, “tend to need to be asked to run for office.” While a man may have no problem stepping up and running for office, internalized misogyny forces women to think about how they’ll be perceived if they step onto the public stage and run for office. 

Because our political system is so entrenched in patriarchy, sexist double standards inform the way we perceive political candidates. Women in positions of power have had to face all kinds of criticisms that their male counterparts did not: Will people think I’m a bad mom because I’m seeking out this career? Will people think I’m a power-grabber? Will people think I’m “cold” or “shrill” when I speak publicly? Just look at the criticisms of Hillary Clinton, particularly in the 2016 presidential election. According to The Hill, political commentators have called her voice “loud, flat, harrassing to the ear” and said she had a “decidedly grating pitch and punishing tone.” A Washington Post editor said, “she shouts” and there is “something unrelaxed about the way she is communicating.” While volume and impassioned tone are viewed as signs of power and authority in male candidates, the same tropes of public speaking contributed to Clinton’s political demise. These double standards are pieces of the larger reality that American government has always been dominated by men, so our perceptions of female candidates are seriously skewed. While running for office as a man is the default, running for office as a woman a statement, so everything is scrutinized. Consequently, women are intimidated by and discouraged from running for office.  

So what is the path forward for female representation in a male-dominated political arena? Judge Dallet said that she has personally encouraged a number of women to run for office. She said, “once women see other women do it, it reaffirms that they can do it too.” The more women who step up and enter politics, the more role models and success stories there are for women to point to for inspiration. Dallet thinks that encouraging women to run for office seems to be a national theme in this moment of time. She pointed to a number of organizations that are designed to get women on the ballot and into public offices. In fact, she got her start in part due to the help of one of these organizations. When she first ran to be a circuit court judge, she participated in the White House Project, a nonprofit initiative for female representation in American institutions. The White House Project closed in 2013, but many similar organizations have popped up in its place since then. Dallet cited Vote Run Lead, an initiative that helps women run for office by funding campaigns, crafting platforms, writing elevator speeches, and building networks. In fact, Ilhan Omar, the first Somali-American legislator, got her start with Vote Run Lead. Dallet argued that initiatives for female political representation really help because they not only provide women with the skills and resources they need to succeed, but they also cultivate a sense of empowerment -- the attitude that if she did it, I can do it too.

Although the initiatives are promising steps in the right direction, they can’t tip the scales of gender representation in politics overnight. Dallet acknowledged that the process will take time. She added perspective, pointing out that “it wasn’t all that long ago that women couldn’t even vote.” Time, encouraging women to run, and an increasing number of success stories to point to are our best bets at achieving equal representation. Success will breed more success. As the female-male ratio in politics increases, the concept of a woman running for office will become increasingly normalized and the path to election will become less treacherous. Judge Dallet was optimistic. “We can do it,” she said.

On her famous “when there are nine” quote, Ruth Bader Ginsburg followed up,“when I’m asked when there will be enough women on the Supreme Court? And I say ‘When there are nine,’ people are shocked. But there’d been nine men, and nobody’s ever raised a question about that.” Judge Dallet echoed Ginsburg’s stance, saying that “If [the Wisconsin Supreme Court] were all men, you wouldn’t be calling me for a story, because it was already the case throughout history.” She continued, “we need to get to a place of normalcy where women in office making decisions is nothing out of the ordinary.”