National Association of Women Judges (U.S.)

Founded in 1979, the National Association of Women Judges "seeks to promote the administration of justice; to discuss and formulate solutions to legal, educational, social, and ethical problems encountered by women judges; to increase the number of women judges so that the judiciary more appropriately reflects the role of women in a democratic society." It also initiates studies of gender bias in the courts.

Founded in 1979, the National Association of Women Judges "seeks to promote the administration of justice; to discuss and formulate solutions to legal, educational, social and ethical problems encountered by women judges; to increase the number of women judges so that the judiciary more appropriately reflects the role of women in a democratic society."

Other goals have included the appointment of a woman to the Supreme Court, passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, and the elimination of gender bias in the courts, which the NAWJ addressed in 1980 by forming the National Judicial Education Program to Promote Equality for Women and Men in the Courts in cooperation with the National Organization for Women Legal Defense and Education Fund. In 1980 the Foundation for Women Judges was established as the education (tax-exempt) counterpart to the NAWJ; its name was changed to the Women Judges Fund for Justice in 1986 and in 1995 the Fund was folded into the NAWJ.

Founded in 1979, the National Association of Women Judges (NAWJ) "seeks to promote the administration of justice; to discuss and formulate solutions to legal, educational, social and ethical problems encountered by women judges; to increase the number of women judges so that the judiciary more appropriately reflects the role of women in a democratic society." Other goals have included the appointment of a woman to the Supreme Court, passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, and the elimination of gender bias in the courts, which the NAWJ addressed in 1980 by forming the National Judicial Education Program to Promote Equality for Women and Men in the Courts in cooperation with the National Organization for Women Legal Defense and Education Fund. In 1980 the Foundation for Women Judges was established as the education (tax-exempt) counterpart to the NAWJ; its name was changed to the Women Judges Fund for Justice in 1986 and in 1995 the Fund was folded into the NAWJ.

Mattie Belle Edwards Davis (1910-2003), was a founding and active member of the NAWJ. She practiced law in Florida from 1939 until 1959, when she was appointed a judge in the metropolitan court of Dade County, the only woman on a court of thirteen judges. One of the few senior women judges in 1979, Judge Davis presided over one session of the business meeting at the 1979 NAWJ founding conference in Los Angeles. After her retirement in 1981, she served as chair of the Retired Judges Committee of the NAWJ, and became a NAWJ life member.

The National Association of Women Judges was founded in 1979 in Los Angeles, largely through the efforts of a group of California judges led by Joan Dempsey Klein and Vaino Spencer. An organizational drive in 1978-1979 led to a Founders' Conference in October 1979. The purposes of the NAWJ are:

to promote the administration of justice; to discuss legal, educational, social, and ethical problems mutually encountered by women judges and to formulate solutions; to increase the number of women judges so that the judiciary more appropriately reflects the role of women in a democratic society; and to address other important issues particularly affecting women judges.

In 1980 the American Judicature Society and the NAWJ launched a joint project to compile an accurate list of all women judges in the United States. New York had the largest contingent after California, and several New York judges, notably Sybil Hart Kooper, were extremely active in early NAWJ organizational work. By 1985 the association had 580 members, which its leaders believed represented about half of all law-trained women judges in the country.

The NAWJ contracted with the National Center for State Courts in Williamsburg, Virginia, for secretariat services. The NAWJ office has since moved to Washington, D.C., but the NCSC continues to take care of membership work for the association.

Early goals of the association included the appointment of a woman to the Supreme Court (Sandra Day O'Connor was a founding member), passage of the ERA, establishment of liaisons with the American Bar Association (ABA; NAWJ achieved affiliate status in 1983) and with state and local women's bar associations, and encouragement of parental and educational leave policies for judges. In 1980 the NAWJ, in cooperation with the National Organization for Women Legal Defense and Education Fund, established the National Judicial Education Program to Promote Equality for Women and Men in the Courts (NJEP). After attending an early NJEP presentation, Marilyn Loftus (who later served as NAWJ president) helped create and subsequently chaired the New Jersey Supreme Court Task Force on Women in the Courts. Similar task forces, most with the term "gender bias" in their titles, were soon set up in many other states, and the NAWJ published a manual on how to do so. These studies covered all aspects of women in court systems: court employees' working conditions; women as litigators, judges, administrators; and women as parties in court actions. By 1996, 37 states and two federal circuits had established gender bias task forces, and many states followed these with racial and ethnic bias studies. In 1996, New York released a ten-year evaluation of its continuing work on women in the courts.

The NAWJ started early to lobby against the accepted practice of judges belonging to discriminatory private clubs. Due in large part to efforts by NAWJ District 14 members, the California Judges Association changed its canon of judicial ethics in 1986 to label membership in clubs practicing "invidious" discrimination to be "inappropriate" for anyone holding a judicial appointment. Negotiations with the ABA to promote a similar resolution were also ultimately successful.

Judicial screening practices were another immediate target of the NAWJ. Joan Dempsey Klein, founding president, wrote the ABA Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary in November 1979 to state the concern of the NAWJ that the ABA screening process "works to the detriment of women and minority nominees." The association also urged states, particularly Vermont, without women judges to appoint some.

In 1980 a non-profit corporation, the Foundation for Women Judges, was established as the "education" (tax-exempt) counterpart to the NAWJ. The name was changed to the Women Judges Fund for Justice in 1986. In 1995, the foundation was folded into the NAWJ.

In April 1982 the NAWJ invited forty women judges from across the country to a "Symposium on Women in the Judiciary" at the Wingspread Center near Racine, Wisconsin. This was an occasion for networking, brainstorming, reflection, and communication among women judges and created "a sense of direction" for later activities. Proceedings of the symposium were published in 1983.

By 1988 the association had 24 active committees. In 1989, with 1,000 members, the NAWJ celebrated its tenth anniversary by inviting women judges from around the world to attend its annual meeting; 54 came, from 30 countries. This gathering set in motion the founding of the International Association of Women Judges, which came into being in October 1992.

The NAWJ is bi-partisan yet political and feminist. It is recognizably a mainstream legal group. It continues to provide a social and professional network for women judges, and to expand its committee work to include projects on women in prison, domestic violence, exchange with foreign women judges, and many other topics.