[séminaire CREM] A justice rendered by women for women? What judicial intervention does to gender wealth gap - Faculté Des Sciences Economiques

Abstract:
In order to understand the role of law and justice in the gender wealth gap in contemporary France, we study the influence of the judges' gender on decisions related to marital separations. We use a unique dataset of 3,000 judicial cases with detailed information about both the judges and the cases. We do not find any systematic effect of the judges' gender. The latter does not affect the decisions related to child physical custody and child support. However, female judges tend to grant a lower share of spousal compensatory benefits but when a benefit is granted, its value is larger than those granted by male judges. These results are confirmed when we analyze the litigants' claims. The limited effect of judicial intervention on gender inequality between separated men and women is not due to the discretion of judges but rather due to the litigants' claims and the importance that female as male judges give to these claims in their decision-making process. Information used and organizational constraints faced by judges as well as peer effects can explain these results, which question the hypothesis of a feminist justice or a justice “rendered by women for women”.