Advancing Women’s Leadership and Gender Parity in Justice Institutions

On the margins of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW70) 2026, UNDP, together with the University of Pittsburgh’s Gender Equality Research Lab, convened a discussion on women’s leadership in justice institutions on March 17, 2026, at the Doha Room in UNDP HQ. The exchange brought together researchers and practitioners with a core message: advancing gender equality in justice is fundamentally a question of data, evidence, and how these are used to drive reform. 

Across the world, justice institutions are essential to safeguarding rights, strengthening accountability, and ensuring fairness. Yet more than five billion people still lack meaningful access to justice; a gap that reflects not only service delivery constraints, but deeper systemic challenges in how institutions function and whom they represent. Moreover, gender gaps in judicial leadership continue to influence who participates in shaping justice outcomes.  

Justice institutions sit at the heart of governance systems. They safeguard rights, underpin accountability, and shape whether citizens trust the state. One of those challenges is representation. Who occupies positions of authority within justice institutions directly influences how decisions are made, whose experiences are reflected, and whether justice systems are perceived as legitimate. But addressing this challenge depends fundamentally on data. 

For too long, gender inequalities in justice institutions have been difficult to assess systematically. Data on women’s representation in the judiciary has often been fragmented, inconsistent, or entirely absent. Without reliable data, policymakers struggle to pinpoint where disparities are greatest, develop targeted solutions, or measure whether reforms are working. 

Recent collaboration between the UNDP Gender Equality Seal, the UNDP Global Policy Center for Governance and the University of Pittsburgh’s Gender Equality Research Lab, including work led by Professors Müge Finkel and Melanie Hughes called Gen-PaCS 2.0 dataset, has helped strengthen the global evidence base on women’s leadership across public administration and justice institutions. By combining this work with UNDP’s own data efforts, a more complete and policy-relevant picture is emerging. 

What the Data Reveals and Why It Matters 

The emerging global picture shows both progress and persistent structural barriers. 

UNDP’s Women in Judiciary Dashboard provides, for the first time, a globally comparable view of women’s representation across judicial systems, disaggregated by level of court. By bringing together official country data in an accessible format, it makes visible where progress is being made and where inequalities persist, particularly at higher levels of judicial authority. 

While women are increasingly represented in lower-level judicial roles, they remain underrepresented in senior leadership positions, including supreme and constitutional courts. This concentration of women in lower-level roles continues to limit their influence in the spaces where the most consequential decisions are made.

This pattern reflects systemic challenges: in recruitment, promotion pathways, and institutional culture that require deliberate policy responses. It also highlights that equality in entry does not translate into equality in power. At the same time, significant data gaps remain, particularly in lower-income and fragile contexts. In these settings, the absence of data is itself a governance problem, obscuring inequalities and weakening the basis for reform. 

In terms of gender equality in the public administration, data from the University of Pittsburgh underscored a consistent and concerning pattern: the higher the position, the fewer women hold it. Women make up 45% of managers, 38% of senior managers, and just 38% of top leaders, who represent less than 1% of all public administration roles.   

In Africa, the data is both limited and uneven. Only 9 countries report publicly available figures on women in justice ministry decision-making roles. Where data exists, the range is striking, from 11% in Togo to 54% in South Africa, showing that progress is possible but far from guaranteed. 

Data, Accountability, and the Conditions for Reform 

The real power of these datasets lies not only in what they reveal, but in what they enable. 

As UNDP’s Rehab Al-Sanabani put it, “better data makes inequality visible… [and] creates the conditions for reform.”  By making inequalities visible and comparable, tools such as the Women in Judiciary Dashboard strengthen accountability and create pressure for change. They enable governments to benchmark progress, identify gaps, and target interventions. They also allow civil society, researchers, and international partners to engage more effectively in supporting reform efforts. 

Importantly, combining datasets linking judicial representation with broader public administration data and SDG 16 indicators, provides a more complete picture of how justice systems function. This integrated evidence base supports more coherent and effective policy responses. 

From Data to Institutional Change 

The session affirmed a clear conclusion: achieving gender parity in justice institutions requires robust data, sustained leadership commitment, and a willingness to confront structural barriers. With new global platforms like the Women in Judiciary Dashboard and Gen‑PaCS 2.0, countries now have better evidence.  However, while data is essential, it is not sufficient. Turning evidence into impact requires political commitment, institutional reform, and sustained efforts to address structural barriers. This includes reforming promotion systems, strengthening leadership pipelines, and addressing institutional norms that limit women’s advancement. In fragile and crisis contexts, the stakes are even higher. Exclusion from leadership can deepen inequalities and weaken institutional resilience.