Sandra Day O’Connor became the first female Supreme Court Justice in 1981, but before that there was a long history of female candidates waiting in the wings. On this week’s 51%, we discuss the honors and limits of being shortlisted with the authors of Shortlisted: Women in the Shadows of the Supreme Court. We also take a look at President Biden’s shortlist, following his pledge to nominate the first Black woman to the Supreme Court.

Guests: Renee Knake Jefferson and Hannah Brenner Johnson, authors of Shortlisted: Women in the Shadows of the Supreme Court

51% is a national production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio. It's produced by Jesse King. Our executive producer is Dr. Alan Chartock, and our theme is "Lolita" by the Albany-based artist Girl Blue.

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You’re listening to 51%, a WAMC production dedicated to women’s issues and experiences. Thanks for joining us, I’m Jesse King. 

With Associate Justice Stephen Breyer set to retire, President Biden has said he will tap his nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court by the end of February. The Democrat has also said his pick will be the first Black woman to fill the role, more than 40 years after the nomination of Sandra Day O’Connor, the first female Supreme Court justice, in 1981. When we talk about women in the Supreme Court, we tend to start with O’Connor — but as our guests today will tell us, there’s actually a long, untold history of women being considered, but ultimately passed over, for the nation’s highest court. 

Renee Knake Jefferson and Hannah Brenner Johnson are the authors of Shortlisted: Women in the Shadows of the Supreme Court, out now on New York University Press. Jefferson is an internationally-recognized expert on professional responsibility and legal ethics, as well as a professor of law at the University of Houston, while Johnson is vice dean of academic affairs and a professor at California Western School of Law in San Diego. Both have done extensive research on gender equality in the legal profession. Their latest title, in addition to sharing the stories of the so-called “Shortlisted Sisters,” examines the challenges women and minorities face when seeking positions of power — be it in the courts, in the boardroom, or on the playing field. 

What inspired you to write this book?

Johnson: It was about the time that President Obama was faced with two vacancies on the Court. And he, as we now know, nominated two women, now Justices Sotomayor and Kagan, to the U.S. Supreme Court. And Renee and I just had the usual conversations that law professors have about those nominations. We were particularly struck, at that time, by the way the media was covering their nominations, the scrutiny that was being focused on things unrelated to their qualifications. I mean, these are two extraordinarily qualified women. You can't not be and make it to the Supreme Court. But the mainstream media was focusing on their appearance and their sexuality, on the fact that they didn't have a husband. And we were perplexed and frustrated, and frankly, offended by some of the coverage. And because we're academics, we have a lot of privilege that comes along with that role. And so we set about the business of studying the way that the media portrays nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court through a gender lens. And it was in the midst of that research study, during which we and a team of research assistants read about 4,000 articles that covered Supreme Court nominations, that we found an article that really struck our attention, and we f