I agree that gender bias exists and does so in the law field. I've worked in the law field myself in one position or another since 2003. And bias based on age or gender is despicible and should be somthing abhorred by all decent folk.
ellienor wrote: RELStuart, it's well and good to be gender and racially neutral when our institutions reflect our society. The current SCOTUS with its predominance of white males does not reflect our society. I don't want old white men deciding these issues--I want a court that reflects all perspectives, all members of the society.
I work in law--I'm a female lawyer--and if you think gender bias is no longer there, I have plenty of ammo stored up for you.
But you outline part of the problem I'm pointing out. You view the Supremes as old white men and you say you don't want them deciding issues for you. The only reason you give is because they are old and white.
Do our institutions have to reflect the colors and ethnic backgroud of our society? Or is it enough that people of good character serve in them? I do not advocate the position that our institutions NOT reflect "all members of society". Frankly that is not a big issue to me. But the supreme court only has nine members. It will never reflect all perspectives or members of society. And that is not their purpose. We have a house of representitives that are elected and should express our members and views of our society based on who we the people choose. The Supreme Court should be made up of the best members of our legal field without reference to the color of their skin or their age. If they are all black, white, Indian, older, or younger no one should give a damn. In a perfect world. Which we will never have but we should all work for.
Though as a common sense thing I could see having mostly older people. I realize we don't reverre older people like in Asian cultures but they do tend to have accumulated some wisdom and life experience that younger people don't have yet. Not a bad thing for the highest court in the land.