Blog # 28

“Proving Yourself in a Man’s World” is an excellent title for this blog because it is exactly what Justice Sonia Sotomayor had to do when she was nominated for the Supreme Court. Because she was a woman, and a minority at that, she faced extremely harsh criticisms which included accusations of stupidity, a poor temperament, and vanity. She was negatively portrayed in the media by many men and opposers who did not like or respect her. These are attributes that are often associated with females in the legal field and it comes as no surprise that Justice Sotomayor was heavily criticized for these characteristics. If it had been a man running for Supreme Court he would likely be scrutinized for different attributes and probably not as harshly at that. Just like we have seen in the examples provided in “Gender on Trial”, Justice Sotomayor had to prove herself as worthy at a much more difficult level that a white male. Men talk about her in a disrespectful and condescending way that goes to prove that they think she is unable to do her job as good as a man. Competency is treated significantly differently between men and women in the law career and Justice Sotomayor’s case is a prime example. Since when was it such a big deal electing a Supreme Court Justice, and has this much controversy ever risen from a male nominee choice? Personally I cannot recall a time that such a commotion was caused over a Supreme Court Justice and some of them are arguably very extreme. The articles that were published about her character were largely biased and viewed her in a negative light with no actual credibility to the accusations they made. The election of Sonia Sotomayor into the Supreme Court is monumental for women and minorities because it shows it can be done despite the obstacles and biases against women.