Fawcett’s Sex and Power 2022 Index is a biennial report which charts the progress towards equal representation for women in top jobs across the UK.
As highlighted in the report at the very top of our civil justice system in the UK sits the Supreme Court’s 12 Justices, of whom only two (16.7%) are women (and all are white).
This level of under-representation of women continues into the next two highest tiers of the judiciary of England and Wales. As of 2021, the latest data, just 10 of the 37 Court of Appeal judges (27%) were women, and none of those declaring their ethnicity were from minoritised groups.
In respect of gender this is an improvement on the 2020 Sex and Power report, when 23% of Lord Justices of Appeal were women. However, there has been no change in the number of women from ethnic minority groups which has remained at zero since the 2018 Sex and Power report.
The next tier down, the High Court of England and Wales, performs marginally better, with 31 (30%) women amongst its 105 judges. Women’s representation has improved steadily from 27% in 2019, and 22% in 2018, but there is still some way to go and the work that has achieved this progress must be extended, not scaled back.
It is positive to see the Ministry of Justice publish intersectional data for High Court Judges, Masters, Registrars and Cost Judges. Amongst this group of 271, there are 73 women, seven of which are from ethnic minority backgrounds. There is some improvement required on the representation of women from ethnic minority groups relative to women overall, as the court system strives for better gender equality.
To read the full report, please click here.
