Will Inquiry Produce Action? Studying the Effects of Gender in the Federal Courts

When the Ninth Circuit Gender Bias Task Force released its report at the Circuit\u27s 1992 Judicial Conference, Justice Sandra Day O\u27Connor offered this perspective: A couple of years ago, I gave a speech in which I discussed the existence of a glass ceiling for women. The next day, headlines and newspaper articles trumpeted my statements as if I had made a surprising new discovery. But it is now 1992, and I don\u27t think most of us were surprised to learn that the [Ninth Circuit] Task Force found the exis- tence of gender bias in a federal circuit. After all, over 20 state task forces already have found gender bias in their judicial systems