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Originally Posted by Unregistered
Whilst I don't agree with that statement about women making poor lawyers, I will also take stats from Western countries with a hefty pinch of salt.
Western countries have all sorts of politically correct unwritten diversity quotas that may skew meritocratic selection.
Case in point, Joe Biden's outright commitment to get a black female nominated to the SCOTUS.
Due to culture wars in Western countries, true meritocratic selections are often made subordinate to other priorities that are perceived to be more important such as achieving some kind of racial or gender parity to correct for real or perceived past discriminations.
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Putting aside the Joe Biden example, diversity is NOT at odds with meritocracy. I’m always curious when people claim that to be the case. Without exception the people who write that are those who have never really faced structural barrier in their life and career such as being a struggling mother with kids balancing a legal career (even more so single
mothers) or being from a minority. In the domestic context, those would be men from a particular race. Just like how QCs for the longest time always were white men who just happened to deserve it on “merit”. If “merit” doesn’t take into account one’s life journey then merit means nothing at all. It’s high time we embraced the benefits of diversity in the legal profession at all levels.