Professor Fernanda Nicola to Conduct Comparative Research on Gender Parity and the Role of Women Leaders in the E.U. and the U.S.
Professor Fernanda Nicola is participating in an interdisciplinary research led by the State of Women Research Network (“the Network) and funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union. The Network conducts comparative research and maps the state of gender parity and the role of women leaders in the European Union (EU) and the United States (U.S.). The Network’s research projects cut across ten fundamental societal institutions – parliaments, governments, courts, military, diplomacy, academia, business, religion, media, and sports.
Professor Nicola, Director of AUWCL Program on International Organizations, Law, and Development and member of the American Society of Comparative Law, is leading the Network’s project on Women in Courts. Professor Nicola will examine why women continue to be underrepresented on the bench of higher courts, and evaluate their impact on the jurisprudence of those courts. Her research will also consider whether there are additional benefits from increased judicial diversity and internal institutional change, such as strengthened legitimacy, dismissal of stereotypes, and higher quality in decision-making. The research will focus particularly on the Court of Justice of the EU and the U.S. Supreme Court. The research will present best practices on gender parity in courts and provide policy recommendations for its enhancement, particularly at the leadership level.
The Network is composed of academic partners from nine academic institutions from across Europe and the U.S., including AUWCL, the Institute for Women’s Policy Development, University of Wyoming, University of Miami, University of Latvia, University of Scranton, Warsaw School of Economics, University of Rome, University of Bolzano, and Bifrost University. The Network’s projects, which strongly focus on gender promotion, are trans-disciplinary and cover areas of political science, economy, law, sociology, communication, history, and philosophy.