Idaho Women Lawyers Group Calls for More Women Judges
8/8/2012

Summary:

Stoel Rives attorney Nicole Hancock discussed in Idaho Business Review a national study that found that Idaho has the lowest percentage of women judges in the nation at 11 percent. Published by the State University of New York at Albany, the study ranked Montana first with 40 percent of its judges being women. New York, Washington D.C. and 12 other states had at least 30 percent of women judges.

Hancock, the president of Idaho Women Lawyers, a nonprofit that promotes opportunities for women and minorities in the legal profession, said that appointing more women judges is imperative to make the Idaho judiciary more representative of the population. However, she noted that Idaho Governor Butch Otter and his predecessors have simply not appointed enough women judges over the last several years, although Governor Otter is showing signs that he is more inclined to appoint women. After 34 straight appointments of men to the bench, Governor Otter's last four appointments have been women. Idaho still ranks last in the nation and there is a great deal of change necessary to improve Idaho's representative bench.

Read the Idaho Business Review article

"Slow gains for parity on the bench" was published by Idaho Business Review, August 1, 2012.