Abstract

Attorney success at oral arguments is related to compliance with gender norms, subtle expectations about how men and women should speak and act in a host of contexts. While oral arguments are typically between two attorneys, amici curiae are present in a significant minority of cases. Amici, often representing the federal government, lend credibility to their endorsed attorney and complement the argument. Much like arguments for attorneys representing the petitioner and respondent, we contend amici oral argument success is tied to the performance of gender. However, while attorneys for the petitioner and respondent are more successful when adhering to gender norms, amici success is tied to mimicry of the gender norms associated with the endorsed attorney. Thus, a female attorney supporting a male attorney will be more successful if she utilizes male gender norms. Drawing on communication literature, we argue this is because endorsed attorneys and their amici collectively construct a narrative. By arguing first, the endorsed attorney sets gender norm expectations which the amicus then matches via mimicry. We find support for this argument via a quantitative textual analysis of oral amicus arguments from the 2004–2016 terms. While our results add a new wrinkle to our understanding of gender at oral arguments, they also raise normative concerns. Whereas previous work indicates women must balance gender and professional norms, our results suggest that it is not just women who are held to this double standard, but also the men who support them. This compounds concerns about how effectively women can participate as counsel at the Supreme Court.

摘要

律师在口头辩论中的成功与遵守性别规范有关，以及对男性和女性在各种情况下应该如何说话和行事的微妙期望。虽然口头辩论通常在两名律师之间进行，但在少数案件中存在法庭之友。经常代表联邦政府的 Amici 为他们认可的律师提供了可信度，并补充了这一论点。就像代表请愿人和被告的律师的论点一样，我们认为法庭之友口头辩论的成功与性别的表现有关。然而，虽然请愿人和被告的律师在遵守性别规范时更成功，但amici的成功与模仿与认可律师相关的性别规范有关。因此，如果她利用男性性别规范，支持男性律师的女性律师会更成功。借鉴传播文献，我们认为这是因为被认可的律师和他们的朋友共同构建了一个叙述。通过首先争论，被认可的律师设定了性别规范期望，然后法庭之友通过模仿进行匹配。我们通过对 2004-2016 年的口头法庭之友论点的定量文本分析找到了对这一论点的支持。虽然我们的结果为我们在口头辩论中对性别的理解增添了新的皱纹，但它们也引发了对规范的担忧。虽然以前的工作表明女性必须平衡性别和职业规范，但我们的结果表明，不仅女性受到这种双重标准的约束，而且支持她们的男性也是如此。