Is There Any Gender Bias In Our Court System?

Abstract

During the last several decades, the role of women has been redefined and changed progressively. This changing role of women has lured attraction to the issue of gender bias in our court system. Gender bias is the discrimination or prejudice based on gender of a person. In our court system gender bias has critically affected the outcome of decisions, solely made on the basis of sex. Court decisions taken on the basis of sex are usually based upon predetermined designs of gender roles. These actions or decisions do not focus on the fair and unbiased judgments of the individual situations. The purpose of the study is to provide a biased analysis of existence of gender bias in our court system.

Table of Contents

Abstractii

Introduction1

Discussion1

Background and Analysis of Mary Winkler Case1

Creation of Special Task Force to Analyze Gender Bias in Our Court System3

Gender Bias Report from Pennsylvania3

Gender Bias Report from Virginia4

Gender Bias Report from Florida4

Conclusion5

References6

Is There Any Gender Bias In Our Court System?

Introduction

Gender Bias is the discrimination or prejudice based on gender of a person. It has been commonly said that justice is blind. However, gender bias has occurred as a common problem in our court system from time to time. The paper strives to understand the nature and existence of gender bias in our court system. The paper discusses the case of Mary Winkler, who killed her husband in 2006, to support various arguments on the issue of gender bias in our court system. Lastly, the paper supports the issue by researching through various journal reports submitted by different states on the issue of gender bias in judicial system.

Discussion

In our culture, it is generally believed that women should be treated equally as men. However, this statement is often rejected by many people in our culture because, the people of this school of thought, believe that women are not as physically strong as men. Therefore, the existence of gender bias in our court system is intuitive. There are various cases where women have not been convicted as similar to the conviction of men, for the same offense. We shall be analyzing the case of Mary Winkler, who killed her husband in 2006. She had been incarcerated for seven months only for attempting a first-degree murder of her husband.

Background and Analysis of Mary Winkler Case

The couple of Matthew and Mary Winkler was a perfect couple, as described by their close friends and acquaintances. They were married for ten years and had three precious daughters. Mary proved to be supportive partner, for Matthew, throughout their married life. She had a dream of becoming a school teacher and was planning to return to college in order to pursue her dream. Mathew was a preacher at Fourth Street Church of Christ in Selmer. Matthew and Mary used to live with their pet spaniel dog just a few minutes away from the church, in a brick parsonage. However, Mary Winkler shot her husband, in the back, with ...