Introduction to the Effects of Gender in the Federal Courts: The Final Report of the Ninth Circuit Gender Bias Task Force
![handle is hein.journals/scal67 and id is 745 raw text is: INTRODUCTION TO THE EFFECTS OF
GENDER IN THE FEDERAL
COURTS: THE FINAL REPORT
OF THE NINTH CIRCUIT
GENDER BIAS TASK FORCE
HON. DOROTHY W. NELSON*
[T]he achievement of full equality between the sexes, is one of the
most important, though less acknowledged prerequisites of peace.
The denial of such equality perpetrates an injustice against one-half
of the world's population and promotes in men harmful attitudes
and habits that are carried from the family to the workplace, to
political life, and ultimately to international relations. There are no
grounds, moral, practical, or biological, upon which such denial can
be justified .... I
In January of 1988, the Ninth Circuit Education Committee asked
the National Judicial Education Program to Promote Equality for
Women and Men in the Courts (NJEP), on whose Advisory Board I
sit, to give a workshop on gender bias issues in Title VII cases.
After the workshop, one judge wrote on his evaluation sheet, New
ideas, hard to hear.'2 This comment captures both the sensitivity of
the subject matter and also the willingness of most judges at least to
listen to the issue. Another district judge said to me, I didn't think
this workshop was needed. However, it opened my mind in many
ways, especially on how women lawyers perceive they are being
treated by male judges and lawyers in the courtroom.
Therefore, it was a source of pride to me that the Judicial Confer-
ence of the Ninth Circuit in August of 1990 approved a resolution
* Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit; former dean, University of
Southern California Law Center.
1. THE PROMISE OF WORLD PEACE: A STATEMENT BY THE UNIVERSAL HOUSE OF Jus-
Tre TO THE PEOPLE OF THE WORLD, Bahai Publishing Trust, Wilmette, Illinois (1985).
2. Lynn Hecht Schafran, National Judicial Education Program to Promote Equality for
Women and Men in the Courts 1988 Annual Report, 5 (1988).](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/scal67&div=34&collection=journals&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Introduction to the Effects of Gender in the Federal Courts: The Final Report of the Ninth Circuit Gender Bias Task Force
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