The judge is (often) a woman. Professional perceptions and practices of male and female family court magistrates

In France, disputes related to marital separations are heard in the Family Chambers of the Superior Courts (Chambres de la famille des Tribunaux de Grande instance) by a single judge (a family court judge). As the magistracy feminizes, the question of what influence a judge's gender has over rulings in family cases has become a controversial topic and a media hobbyhorse, under mounting pressure from organizations that defend fathers' rights. Using the results of a collective survey conducted in four Superior Courts between 2008 and 2010, this article shows that male and female family court judges do not follow the same personal and professional paths and do not assume their jobs under the same conditions or at the same moment in their careers, and thus perceive their roles in quite different ways. Despite all these differences, there is great homogeneity in these judges' decisions, no matter their sex. (C) 2013 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.