Half of the judiciary should be women, says Britain’s most senior judge

Britain’s most senior judge has called for at least half of the judiciary to be made up of women.

Speaking at an event last Thursday to mark 100 years since women’s entry into the legal profession, Brenda Hale, president of the Supreme Court and the first woman to take on the role, said that as women make up half the population “we should be half of judges at least”.

Just 29% of court judges are women, according to the latest Ministry of Justice figures from last year. In the supreme court, the UK’s highest court, just three out of 12 justices are female. In tribunal courts there is a more even split, with 46% of judges who are women.

Lady Hale has previously called for more diversity in the judiciary so that the public feel those on the bench are “our judges” rather than “beings from another planet”.

Speaking alongside her at the event organised by the UK Association of Women Judges was Lady Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, the first female judge in the court of appeal, and Teresa Doherty, former presiding judge of the special court of Sierra Leone.

Lady Butler-Sloss said she is not a feminist. “I didn’t really think about gender very much,'' she said. “The only time I thought about it was when I was called to the district bench.”  She was told there were no female judges at the time and that they wanted a woman who was married with children.

In contrast, Lady Hale said she had “never hesitated” to call herself a feminist

“It should never be a term of abuse or embarrassment.” she added.

“We should be equal to men and have equal rights. Everybody in this room should be a feminist. I find it quite astonishing that it took until 2004 to put a woman in the House of Lords. That’s because they weren’t looking hard enough. Now they realise things have to change and have changed considerably.”