Women make up nearly 40% of Pennsylvania judiciary
MetroCreative
As of the end of February, 39% of active judges in Pennsylvania are women.
That is according to the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts (AOPC), which recognizes March as National Women’s History Month. The agency issued a news release, breaking down how many women are at each level of the judiciary.
At the magistrate level, 28% of district judges are female. There are 162 women judges serving in county common pleas court, 36% of the total.
The seven-member Pennsylvania Supreme Court currently has three women, including Chief Justice Debra Todd. She is the first female to serve as chief justice in the court’s 302-year history.
The majority of Pennsylvania’s Superior and Commonwealth Courts are made up of women. On the Superior Court, there are 12 women to two men, with one vacancy. At the Commonwealth Court level, there are seven women and two men.
The AOPC provided data for the makeup of the court in both 2014 and 2004. In 2004, there were 254 women judges in Pennsylvania. Ten years later, the number climbed to 279, about 28% of the judiciary.
The following decade saw a much more pronounced closing of the gender gap, with the number of women on the bench reaching 332.
Locally, there have not been many significant changes in the number of female judges. Washington County has 12 district court offices, and just one is run by a woman. Judge Kelly Stewart oversees the Washington district.
Washington County Common Pleas Court has two active female judges: Judge Traci McDonald and Judge Valarie Costanzo. Katherine Emery resigned as the court’s president judge in 2020, but remains a senior judge.
Fayette County has one woman magistrate among its seven district court locations. Judge Jennifer Jeffries’ district covers Menallen and South Union Township. That number is down from three judges 10 years ago.
At the common pleas level, there is Judge Linda Cordaro and Judge Nancy Vernon, who were elected to their positions in 2013 and 2009 respectively.
Greene County has no women serving as judges at the district court or common pleas level, and per the AOPC data, that was the case in 2004 and 2014.