6 THE ITALIAN LAW JOURNAL NO. 2 (2020) Gender Equality in the Judiciary: Experiences and Perspectives from Italy by Sara Cocchi and Mariarosaria Guglielmi Today, women represent more than a half of the Italian judiciary. However, despite the increasing number of women judges and prosecutors holding managerial positions in courts and Public Prosecutors Offices a closer look at the gender distribution of top-level offices and to the composition of judicial self-governing bodies (the High Council for the Judiciary, HJC, in particular) shows that the so-called ‘glass ceiling’ is far from being broken. By combining a detailed historical background with updated facts and figures, this article seeks to explore the path that women judges and prosecutors had to walk (and are still walking) to achieve full equality with their men colleagues, highlighting prominent achievements (eg the institution of the HJC Committee for Equal Opportunities and of local equal opportunity committees) and current challenges. Additionally, through continuous references to key international documents, the Italian experience is put in a wider international context with a view to show how the attainment of gender equality in the judiciary has now acquired unprecedented global relevance. DOI 10.23815/2421-2156.ITALJ ISSN 2421-2156
