Date of Award
Spring 2019
Document Type
Honors Thesis
Department/Major
Political Science
First Advisor
Ms. Sandy McKeown
Second Advisor
Dr. Julia Hellwege
Third Advisor
Ms. Wendy Hess
Keywords
South Dakota Judiciary, Women, Political Ambition, Imposter Syndrome
Abstract
The judicial branch is the only branch of government which has formal education requirements in South Dakota. Neither South Dakota’s executive branch nor legislative branch require any form of advanced education; however, the judiciary does require its judges have a law degree. As more women graduate law school, more women become competitive candidates for judicial positions. However, there exists a “gavel gap”, or an underrepresentation of females as judges in South Dakota. Women make up 49 percent of South Dakota’s state population and 34 percent of South Dakota’s attorney population; however, women only make up 19 percent of South Dakota’s state court judges. This paper examines South Dakota’s female attorneys and their perspective on their qualifications to determine if women harbor feelings of imposter syndrome which keeps South Dakota from seeing more women ascend to the bench. Through research into the differing perspectives of South Dakota’s female and male attorneys about how and when each feel qualified to seek judicial office, this paper aims to find a correlation between South Dakota’s gavel gap and an imposter gap between female attorneys, male attorneys, and their feelings of qualification.
Recommended Citation
Ireland, Marcus, "Are Women Benching Themselves From The South Dakota Judiciary?" (2019). Honors Thesis. 51.
https://red.library.usd.edu/honors-thesis/51