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The difference that black female judges in South Africa make

Historically in South Africa women as a group faced many obstacles in entering the legal • profession.1 • Although in 1923 an established law was enacted allowing women to be admitted into legal practice gender bias was still a barrier to their admission'. 2 Women bore . the brunt of gender discrimi...

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Main Author: Chiseya, Tipei Wadzanai
Other Authors: Smythe, Dee
Format: Thesis
Language:English
English
Published: Centre for Law and Society 2026
Subjects:
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access_status_str Open Access
author Chiseya, Tipei Wadzanai
author2 Smythe, Dee
author_browse Chiseya, Tipei Wadzanai
Smythe, Dee
author_facet Smythe, Dee
Chiseya, Tipei Wadzanai
author_sort Chiseya, Tipei Wadzanai
collection Thesis
description Historically in South Africa women as a group faced many obstacles in entering the legal • profession.1 • Although in 1923 an established law was enacted allowing women to be admitted into legal practice gender bias was still a barrier to their admission'. 2 Women bore . the brunt of gender discrimination but black women in particular felt it the most. Their identity as black women together with the psychological, social and cultural experiences they . have endured in the past makes them distinct as a group. Issues of race and gender inequality are currently still rife within the legal profession. Thus, there is need to address such issues. • At present the statistics of the total number of judges presiding over our higher courts shows • that out of the 235 judges only 55 are women (that is only 23 per cent of the overall judges). There is need to increase the number of females particularly black female judges in order to • achieve a diverse judiciary. This thesis focuses on the difference in experiences that is encapsulated from the background of ( a sample) six black women judges and how such experiences impact on their decisions. This study also seeks to address the issue of judicial transformation in South Africa. A diverse. judiciary is something we should care about. Ensuring that equal numbers of race, class and gender are represented on the bench is fundamental to our constitutional democracy.
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institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language English
eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:32:12.136Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2026
publishDateRange 2026
publishDateSort 2026
publisher Centre for Law and Society
publisherStr Centre for Law and Society
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source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/43006 The difference that black female judges in South Africa make Chiseya, Tipei Wadzanai Smythe, Dee Black Female Judges South Africa Historically in South Africa women as a group faced many obstacles in entering the legal • profession.1 • Although in 1923 an established law was enacted allowing women to be admitted into legal practice gender bias was still a barrier to their admission'. 2 Women bore . the brunt of gender discrimination but black women in particular felt it the most. Their identity as black women together with the psychological, social and cultural experiences they . have endured in the past makes them distinct as a group. Issues of race and gender inequality are currently still rife within the legal profession. Thus, there is need to address such issues. • At present the statistics of the total number of judges presiding over our higher courts shows • that out of the 235 judges only 55 are women (that is only 23 per cent of the overall judges). There is need to increase the number of females particularly black female judges in order to • achieve a diverse judiciary. This thesis focuses on the difference in experiences that is encapsulated from the background of ( a sample) six black women judges and how such experiences impact on their decisions. This study also seeks to address the issue of judicial transformation in South Africa. A diverse. judiciary is something we should care about. Ensuring that equal numbers of race, class and gender are represented on the bench is fundamental to our constitutional democracy. 2026-03-18T10:40:22Z 2026-03-18T10:40:22Z 2010 2026-03-18T10:05:00Z Thesis / Dissertation Masters LLM http://hdl.handle.net/11427/43006 en eng application/pdf Centre for Law and Society Faculty of Law University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Black Female Judges
South Africa
Chiseya, Tipei Wadzanai
The difference that black female judges in South Africa make
thesis_degree_str Master's
title The difference that black female judges in South Africa make
title_full The difference that black female judges in South Africa make
title_fullStr The difference that black female judges in South Africa make
title_full_unstemmed The difference that black female judges in South Africa make
title_short The difference that black female judges in South Africa make
title_sort difference that black female judges in south africa make
topic Black Female Judges
South Africa
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/43006
work_keys_str_mv AT chiseyatipeiwadzanai thedifferencethatblackfemalejudgesinsouthafricamake
AT chiseyatipeiwadzanai differencethatblackfemalejudgesinsouthafricamake