A Third Woman Will Change the Supreme Court, Columnist Says
Columnist David Broder expects a third woman will change the Supreme Court, just as women journalists changed newsrooms.
Writing in the Washington Post, Broder said he believes the expected confirmation of Elena Kagan “will change the high court in ways that no one foresees.” He recalls the changes when female reporters and editors arrived in increasing numbers in the Washington Post newsroom in the 1970s and 1980s.
“The women who came onto the political beat asked candidates questions that would not have occurred to male reporters,” Broder writes. “They saw the candidates’ lives whole, while we were much more likely to deal only with the official part of it. So the scope of the candidate profiles expanded, and the realm of privacy began to shrink.”
The “protective, chauvinistic culture” of the press corps also changed when women joined the ranks, he says.
If Kagan is confirmed, she will join female Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor on the court.
