National Association of Women Judges

National Association of Women Judges is an American professional organization founded in 1979.

Founding

Law professor Beverly Blair Cook developed the idea[1] with two justices on the California Courts of Appeal, Vaino Spencer and Joan Dempsey Klein. Cook gave the keynote address at the first annual meeting in 1979, in Los Angeles.[2]

Among the first resolutions of the membership of the NAWJ, at their founding event in 1979, were a call to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, and an expression of support for the nomination of a woman judge to the Supreme Court.[3]

Activities

The Association publishes statistics and policy reports on gender and the judiciary, holds annual meetings, and offers scholarships for law students, and awards for outstanding career judges. With the National Organization of Women they created the National Judicial Education Project, to raise awareness of gender issues in courts, including such topics as domestic violence and sexual harassment.[4]

The National Association of Women Judges marked its tenth anniversary in 1989 by holding a conference of fifty international women judges, which led to the founding of the International Association of Women Judges.[5]

References

  1. Lee Epstein, "Beverly Blair Cook" in Rebecca May Salokar and Mary L. Volcansek, eds., Women in Law: A Bio-Bibliographical Sourcebook (Greenwood Publishing Group 1996): 56. ISBN 9780313294105
  2. Fred Strebeigh, Equal: Women Reshape American Law (W. W. Norton 2009): 372. ISBN 9780393089554
  3. Lorraine Bennett, "New Women Judges Group Ends Parley" Los Angeles Times (October 29, 1979): 29.
  4. Karen O'Connor, ed., Gender and Women's Leadership: A Reference Handbook (SAGE Publications 2010): 461. ISBN 9781483305417
  5. Angela L. Bos and Natalie Noyes, "International Association of Women Judges" in Mary Zeiss Stang, Carol K. Oyster, Jane E. Sloan, eds., The Multimedia Encyclopedia of Women in Today's World (SAGE Publication 2013). ISBN 9781452270371

External links

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