Your headline (More than half of judges under 40 are women – but judiciary is still overwhelmingly white, 31 July) gives a wholly misleading picture of the progress toward gender balance in the judiciary. Judges under 40 make up only 60 out of 3,238 judges in post.
Moreover, almost all of these younger female judges are clustered at the lower ranks of the judiciary. The picture at the top has barely changed at all. Of the 38 court of appeal judges, eight are women compared with seven in 2014. In the high court, 21 out of 108 judges are women, unchanged from last year. Lady Hale remains the only woman in the supreme court. Nor are younger female judges moving up the judicial hierarchy. Senior judges are generally appointed from a pool of fee-paid part-time judges such as recorders. This group has the lowest proportion of women of all the ranks, at 16%. Further, only 44% of the Judicial Appointments Commission’s recommendations for legal posts in the courts and tribunals in 2014-15 were women, down from 52% in 2012-13. Lord Sumption’s claim that it may take 50 years to achieve a diverse judiciary is starting to look extremely optimistic.
The prospects for more solicitors or BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic) lawyers being appointed – whether women or men – is particularly bleak. The senior judiciary remains dominated by white, male barristers from wealthy backgrounds.
Professor Kate Malleson
Queen Mary, University of London
