On 13 May 2016, a panel came together with the cooperation of the İstanbul Bilgi University Human Rights Law Research Center and the Association of Judges and Prosecutors (YARSAV) to discuss women in the judiciary. There is a strong women’s movement in Turkey. As a result, women’s issues, femicides and sexual harassment and violence are daily subjects of discussion. At the same time, the judiciary is subject of criticism for their passive attitude that fails to protect women. In addition, the number of women in the profession is ever growing. However, female prosecutors remain a rarity while female judges rarely make it to top positions. Indeed, there is no gender equality policy in the judiciary. 

Given this background, the panel consisted of Seda Kalem, Leyla Köksal, Nesli Tunç Emeklioğlu, Filiz Kerestecioğlu and Gökçeçiçek Ayata, moderated by İdil Elveriş. Ms Kalem gave examples from the literature about female judges and judging and shared some of her findings from her research. Ms Köksal discussed gender in the robe of a judge while Ms Emeklioğlu gave a picture of being a female prosecutor. Ms Kerestecioğlu as one of the running candidates for the presidency of the Istanbul Bar Association explained the policy debates at the bars and underlined that they hardly contained gender issues. Ms Ayata discussed international policy documents regarding gender equality as well as women who were brought before the law for their crimes.

In sum, it was clear that the judiciary had a male character; that female judges did not push for gender equality; motherhood and related issues remained a problem. It was also underlined that male judges and prosecutors solved their career problems through male socialization processes which women were excluded from. The issue of whether judging had gender was also debatable. It is hoped that the short panel will be the first of these discussions among the judiciary and academia on the subject.