Justice O'Connor

and the equal protection clause: a feminine voice?

An analysis of O'Connor's votes

on equal protection issues failed to find

a unique pattern, contributing to a growing body of literature that suggests there are few

consistent differences between men and women judges.

I

by Jilda M. Aliotta

t seems intuitively obvious that gender identity influences judges' decisions, and this com mon-sense expectation is not

without theoretical support. Scholars of judicial behavior argue that judges' social attributes are correlated with their decisional propensities. 1 Ac cording to this theory, social attributes like religion, place of rearing, and prestige of education reflect experi ences that have long-lasting effects on attitudes, values, and world views. 2 Gender certainly appears to qualify as one such attribute.

Although differences in socializa tion between male and female judges can be expected to be less pronounced than between men and women gener

household responsibility.4 Feminist legal theorists have

also argued that women judges will speak with a "different voice." 5 Several of these theo rists find their inspiration in the work of psychologist Carol Gilli gan, who argues that women's styles of reasoning and ap proaches to problem solving differ from those of men. 6 Ac cording to Gilligan, while men tend to view the world atomistically and to search for abstract principles to resolve moral problems, women are more likely to see the world as

interconnected