JUST 50 YEARS AGO, women were not allowed to become judges or public prosecutors in Spain. Since then, they have really sprinted: in 2014, they accounted for two thirds of the members of the judiciary. However, they still do not reach the higher seats. Men occupy 80% of the positions in the Supreme and the Constitutional Court. Where does this imbalance stem from?
TO BECOME A judge, one must pass a competitive examination, where the only standards considered are the results. At this level, women hold 65% of the posts. Female presence decreases in the next category, magistrates. According to the Consejo General del Poder Judicial (CGPJ), the governing body for the Spanish Judges, magistrates must pass “a competitive exam among acknowledged jurists with more than 10 years of experience, and a training course in the Judicial School”. A large share of magistrates is female, but their proportion falls below 50% in this category.
Source: Women's Institute
"Until 1966, women were not allowed to access the judiciary in Spain"
HOWEVER, women’s presence plunges when it comes to the Supreme Court: they hold just 13% of the seats, which is almost three times the figure in 2005. Never has a women presided the High Court, which is only accessible for those “prestigious jurists” who have “enough merits” and more than 15 years of experience, according to the law. In short, it is a so-called “discretionary” nomination.
THIS MECHANISM has raised critics questioning the court’s independence, since the nominated tend to be people close to the political parties who control the Congress and the Senate, regardless of their gender and in spite of the Gender Equality Law, which points out that “the Public Powers shall follow the principle of balanced presence of women and men” in the nominations depending on them.
JUDGES ARE NOT very keen on quotas, though. According to a recent survey by the CGPJ, 52% of female members of the judicature disapprove this tool. Three quarters of the judges as a whole think women do not suffer any professional discrimination, while 7% of men and 26% of women believe they do.
Source: Women's Institute
THIS IMBALANCED presence of women in the lowest levels and the higher courts repeats itself among public prosecutors. Women prevail in the second and the third categories, while men take three in each four positions in the first category. Only one third of the chief and deputy chief prosecutors are female. A great share of these are appointed by the government after being proposed by the Prosecutor’s General Office, whose head is also a political designation. The Prosecutor’s Office Annual Report 2015 admits that “70% of the higher positions (…) are held by men”, even if the General Prosecutor herself is now a woman, Consuelo Madrigal. Her office’s report also acknowledges that women abound in the 20 to 50 age groups, and predicts a future in which “women’s proportion among the prosecutors will reach 70%”.
“While they write books, we take care of the kids”
"Maternity brings a sudden stop in female judges career', (Gloria Poyatos)"
CGPJ’s STATISTICS are revealing: at the beginning of 2015, 30 judges and magistrates were on voluntary extended leave of absence to look after their children, all of them being women except one. “This is a sudden stop to their professional careers”, explains Gloria Poyatos, senior judge in Lanzarote and president of the recently created Asociación de Mujeres Juezas de España (AMJE, an organisation advocating for women judges' rights). “It reduces their chances when applying for a discretionary nomination”, for which merits such as Masters Degrees, teaching experience and publications are an asset. “While they write books, we take care of the kids”, Poyatos sums up.
IS THIS THE REASON why there are fewer women in the higher levels of the judiciary? “A male top judge prioritises his career, for what he is not to blame”, says Poyatos. “But men’s and women’s time schedules are different. When making decisions, they choose their profession, and we choose our family”.
THE DISPROPORTION between female presence in the lowest and highest positions is behind AMJE’s demands for the adoption of “positive measures until the representation of men and women is balanced, without taking seniority into account”. They also claim that, with equal merits”, women are nominated for those seats.