10th March International Day of Women Judges.

The UN General Assembly declared 10th March as International Day of Women Judges. It aims to recognise the contribution of women judges in the implementation of the law, fairness, and equal justice. Women have faced significant obstacles in entering the legal profession. In India, of the 256 Supreme Court judges appointed in 71 years, only 11 have been women. Early 2022, the American State Court Judges count only 34% of women. Thankfully, mentalities are progressively changing: the number of female magistrates doubled in 10 years in France, reaching 55% in 2000. IDWJ is about recognising the underrepresentation of women in higher levels and policy-making bodies of the judiciary. It also remains a symbol of the accomplishments of female judges, aiming to inspire girls all around the world who aspire to become, one day, judges too.

It probably is not of huge significance to the girls I teach as they are under 8 years old, but some of them have parents who are lawyers and judges and because of SDG 4 (Quality Education) and 5 (Gender Equality) they are aware of the inequities. It is also the week that started with International Women's Day. We have some biographies about these two female judges:

Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1933 - 2020) was the second female justice of the Supreme Court.

These are board books, so obviously publishers think it is never too young to read about pioneering women who have fought for gender equality.

Then there are others of varying length and detail.

Sonia Sotomayor (born 1954) is an American lawyer and jurist who serves as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. 

Unfortunately the biographies I could find are about American women. Someday we will have more to choose from.

There is also at least one biography about each of these famous female lawyers

• Hillary Clinton (born 1947)

• Michelle Obama (born 1964)  and 

• Kamala Harris (born 1964)

and I haven't seen this , but the blurb makes it sound ideal.

Judge Juliette by Laura Gehl 

Court is in session, with Judge Juliette presiding! Ever since preschool, Juliette’s favorite game has been settling cases. This young girl, with a firm sense of fairness, adjudicates all kinds of neighborhood disputes right from her own backyard—from determining a fair bedtime to figuring out where to locate competing lemonade stands. But now she’s faced with the toughest decision of all: her parents have finally agreed to let her have a pet . . . and they’ve come to her court to argue over whether to get a cat (dad’s request) or a dog (mum’s preference). What will Juliette do?