Introduction

This research is located within the public organizations sociology realm and its objective is to demonstrate the feminization process the Spanish judicial administration is currently experiencing, and how those women who are accessing the judicial career are taking first level positions —first instance and instruction judges, social courts— being their presence still lacking in the maximum responsibility positions as well as in the higher organs of the magistrature. In order to achieve this, a response to the following issues is proposed:

Does the increasing presence of women in these last years mean that there is an opportunity equality in the Spanish judicial institution? Or is this presence only given in access, reserving the most relevant positions to men? Is the possibility of women reaching higher responsibility positions conditioned by the difficulty of managing family and professional lives or is still there a favorable preference for men by the institutional organs?

The interest of the research lies in the fact that the Spanish judicial career has moved from being a male-only organization to an organization in which women are present in a higher percentage. Is it about a quantitative change or is it deeper and thus affecting the structures of the judicial power —bringing a democratization within its ranks?

Methodologic Approach

The general objective of this study is to present the feminization process of the Spanish judiciary by means of developing three starting hypotheses, which work as the backbone of this research.

1^st The judiciary career is an institution where there is no discrimination when a person want to access it, and university women have a higher possibility of developing a qualified job according to their specialization.

2^nd In order to access the most relevant positions of the judicial organogram, more availability is required, therefore, women with family obligations, in practice, have less chances in comparison to their male counterparts to access such positions.

3^rd In these last years an important change is taking place in the Spanish judiciary with the approval of norms whose objective is to provide equal opportunities for female judges and magistrates, and which results have allowed the slow appearance of women in the decision-making and responsibility organs.

The methodology used in this research is descriptive and analytical in its nature, using documental analysis techniques and personal opinion of the ones involved.

The documents considered for the qualitative analysis are: 1^st) VI Barómetro de Opinión de la Judicatura Española [6th Opinion Barometer of the Spanish Judiciary] which gathers 401 interviews proportionally distributed to the number of judges and magistrates of Spain, with a random selection of courthouses according to the jurisdiction order, and within these, a random selection of Spanish judges and magistrates (not including the Supreme Court), hence, this a representative sample of the judicial career, as for gender. 2^nd) V Encuesta a la Carrera Judicial [5th Judicial Career Survey]. 3º) Encuesta a la carrera judicial sobre conciliación de la vida familiar [3rd Judicial Career Survey on the reconciliation of family life] where 751 members of the judicial career have taken part. 4^th) Similarly, the opinion of women who are currently in responsibility positions and who describe the difficulties they have to deal with, in both familiar and professional contexts.

For the quantitative analysis the official statistical information has been used; this was provided by the General Council of the Judicial Power through the yearly publication Informe sobre la estructura demográfica de la Carrera Judicial [Report on the demographic structure of the Judicial Career].

Contextualization. The qualified women and their professional insertion

Throughout history societies and human groups have generated asymmetric power relations between men and women, by the establishment of distinguishing roles according to gender, which have contributed to deprive women from the same opportunities men have to access important positions in organizations and institutions. This occurs since there still exist values that diminish the ability to carry out certain responsibility functions due to household obligations.

This sexualized division of roles between genders, and the principles it is based upon, has been studied by ^{Bourdieu (2005)} as a social construct based on the biological differences between men and women and which have determined social relations between both genders. But this domination, which has been called symbolic violence, is translated into the imposition of men over women in every relational sphere (domestic, professional, social, etc.), and in the assumption and assimilation of this social situation by women and that leads them to accept a sexualized social order, which begins within their own family as this is taught there, and then moves to the labor sphere.

"Power" is an inherent concept to gender relationships for the following reasons:

First, gender and power are structurally linked: the representation of men, in general, is higher in better-paid jobs, and with more formal, organization, political and institutional power. B) Second, gender and power are culturally linked in the social practices, tasks —positions and characteristics socially construed according to the gender (...) These links highlight the unequal distribution of power between men and women and have been a cornerstone in the feminist reconstruction of gender in terms of social constructionism ... (^{Brunet et al., 2011: 41}).

This women's discrimination/segregation in the workplace is experienced mainly through three stages of their lives:

These stereotypes around masculinity/femininity have been incorporated to popular culture and have been present throughout time despite the signs of modernity introduced to occidental societies, determining identities and social customs, lifestyles, attitudes, etc., Culturally speaking, women have been given internal roles of caretaking, whereas men are reserved to roles of familiar and social representation.

The ideal leader responds to a prototype of person: available, totally immersed in their task, without familiar worries, etc., a situation that is typically associated with the male figure, socially speaking. Therefore, the ideal typology (^{Weber, 1993}) present in the collective imaginary discriminates women to access responsibility and decision-making positions, not because of a lack of qualities or studies, rather due to the lack of availability.

Breaking these stereotypes has been a long process and bowing to the struggle, mainly by the feminist movement, little by little the social differences that put women on a second place are becoming shorter and the numerous barriers that hinder their full participation in the education and work fields are being surpassed (^{Beck-Gernsheim et al., 2001}).

Nowadays women in developed societies aspire to have the same educational, formative and working opportunities as those of their fellow men.

To begin with, women are principally located in the service sector, main source of employment creation in our labor market. Secondly, there is a clear coincidence between the evolution of the occupation structure and feminine distribution. In the third place, women intensify their investments in education, in agreement with the higher demands for qualifications in the productive activities (^{Castaño et al., 1999: 17}).

However, women who reach a qualification level higher than that of men and they are still segregated to occupy positions that imply less responsibility and decision-making procedures.

There is "glass ceiling barrier¹" that stops women from occupying positions of responsibility despite having the professional knowledge and competences required. ^{Sánchez Apellániz (1997)} describes three barriers inherent to this "glass ceiling barrier" women face:

Women usually juggle with their familiar and professional lives since there is a lack of public measures to deal with this inequity as a mere situation of fact, but not as a problem; this lack is caused by the male culture present in most organizations, both private and public, and the absence of social sensibility. It is important to change this situation and to promote a new relational order between genders, mainly in the working sphere (^{Wirth, 2002}).

Horizontal segregation has allowed and favored the concentration of women in activity sectors, being mostly in medium-level responsibility positions and most of the time related to their traditional roles, in administration departments and organizations and in social-related activities (^{Sarrio et al., 2002}), thus having to turn themselves into "generic" workers (flexible, with the ability to adapt schedules and tasks, substitutable by any other who accepts the terms of over-exploitation...); it is the ruling trend of women who enter the globalized labor market (^{Amorós, 2005}).

^{Cobo (2010)} mentions that economic globalization is creating a growth in the employment of women; however, such incorporation does not mark a radical trend of change and neither does it produce the same effects in all women.

Gender discrimination is lower in the public administration when compared to the private sector since women can access, through selection evaluations, qualified positions with higher salaries and identical to those of their male peers. Nevertheless, there is also a covered discrimination for the access to responsibility positions to which only a handful of very qualified women access. "There is an invisible barrier that stops women, in the public sphere, to reach the positions men hold. This has been called the glass ceiling barrier, which hides an indirect discrimination, not reflected in the laws and that is measured by the differential results (^{Osborne, 2005: 163}).

Achieving real opportunities equality is a long process that starts by the elimination of the existing discrimination practices in the legislative sphere and in the access to higher education, and to promotion of procedures that lead toward social and material equality in comparison to men (^{Barberá, 2005}). And to all this, the domestic sphere has to be added, with a less biased distribution of roles and functions within the family, as Miller mentions ^(2004:59), "the incorporation of the women in the labor field does not depend on a voluntary intervention by the State or by means of applying pressure through acceptance, but rather through a transformation in the domestic sphere that affects, among other aspects, the socio-labor status men have been carrying out".

Women in the administration of justice

The administration of justice is experiencing an important transformation as a consequence of the access of women to judge, magistrate, prosecutor and judicial administration positions, even if the responsibility levels of the highest ranks of the judicial branch are still, on most occasions, in the hands of men. This feminization process has been taking place over the last decades in many European and Latin American countries, and has produced a large number of bibliography in which the reasons and causes of these changes in the judicial power —an institution that has, for centuries, been reserved to men— have been studied.

Among the aforementioned studies we highlight: ^{Perry (1991)} considers feminine representation in the judicial organs in the United States; Flores (2012) analyzes from a sociological perspective the effects of the presence of women in justice administration in Mexico; ^{Cavagna et al. (1994)} and ^{Gastiazoro (2008)} highlight the increment of feminine presence and the transformation process that comes along this increment in the Argentinian justice administration; ^{Kohen (2008}) analyzes the presence of women and its effect in the justice administration in Argentina; ^{Rueda (2009)} studies the increase of the number of female judges in the administration of justice in Peru from the gender theory; ^{Boigeol (2007)} considers the difficulties female judges and magistrates face in order to access responsibility positions in France, etc.

Women with high levels of training access justice administration only after passing hard and complex evaluations, which require a great personal effort, capability, consistency and will. This is why, it is a very attractive institution for competent women as there they can develop their capabilities and demonstrate their value and thereby feel recognized and gratified by the effort and work done, and which regularly does not occur in the private sector (^{Junqueira, 2003}).

This tends to be an occupation where they are satisfied and where generally they are not discriminated, on the contrary, they admit their difficulties, both professional and personal —to combine their work with their family— to have access to more responsibility positions. Some authors, such as ^{Kohen (2008)} in Argentina and ^{Junqueira (2003)} in Brazil, emphasize that this increment in the number of women in the judicial institution is due to the easiness to combine their domestic obligations and tasks with the professional exercise, given their discretional nature to organize and carry out their jobs.

However, as ^{Bergallo (2006)} mentions, women's position, in comparison to their male counterparts is not egalitarian in selection and access recruiting processes in Argentina, especially for positions with the highest responsibilities. Therefore, women must establish strategies to change the inertia of this discrimination and domination by male workers in the justice administration system, as mentioned by ^{Boigeol (2007)}, when referring to the French judicial system. In regards to the contribution of women to the judicial process, due to their sensibility and values, the studies by ^{Malleson (2007)} in the Italian judicial system, ^{Menkel-Meadow (2002)} in the United States, ^{Gastrón (2009)} in Argentina, ^{Fix-Fierro and López-Ayllon (2006)} in Mexico, etc.

Women in the Spanish judiciary

Until four decades ago, the judicial career in Spain² has been a masculine institution, as well as in many other countries. During the Francoist time, the Spanish jurisdiction recognized the nondiscrimination of professional and labor rights (article 11: "...any Spanish citizen may hold office in public positions and functions according to their merit and capabilities"). However, women were discriminated in the judicial career as according the Law of December 18^th, 1950, which regulates the Judicial School, created by the Law of May 26^th, 1944, which established that in order to have access to it, a requirement was to be male.

Law 56/1961, from July 22th, on women's political, professional and labor rights abolishes the existing restrictions and discriminations and recognizes the women's rights to access the different institutions of public administration, recognizing their capacity to carry out any activity, except those that require disproportionate physical force.

This law set a precedent since it prohibited all forms of labor discrimination because of a person's gender, and specifically in regards to salary; and from this change the working conditions suppressing the clauses of dismissal because of marriage, which was until then, current. However, the discrimination to prevent women from accessing certain functions of the State's administration, as mentioned in the article three two: "An exception of the decree (...) the admittance to: (...) c) the Administration of Justice in the positions of Magistrates, Judges and Prosecutors, with the exception of the minor and labor jurisdictions". We had to wait for the reforms of the Civil and Commerce Codes, in 1975 —when the Francoist dictatorship disappeared— so that the marital authorization to sign a working contract and exercise commercial activities was abolished.

The 1961 law was written by a government's technocrat elite whose intention was to improve Spain's image in the international context, and despite the dictatorship regime, to show women's situation in respect to the working possibilities, comparable to the European societies, and for that reason, the legal impediments that stop them from accessing certain positions within the public administration (^{Telo, 1966: 81}).

During 1966, the need of abrogating those articles from the 1961 Law that excluded women from the judicial career, because of the social pressure by university women's groups linked to the Schools of Law; this created a great impact in the mass media (^{Espuny et al., 2010: 111}). The numbers of students enrolled in the Law Schools in Spain are a clear indication of this, and their numbers are increasing since then: 1959-1960 (855 students, 5,8%), 1975-1976 (14.277 students, 30,1%), 1980-1981 (31.123 students, 37.3%), 1990-1991 (99.323 students, 53,3%), 2000-2001 (81.305 students, 52,2%), 2010-2011 (34.537 students, 50,9%) (^{National Institute of Statistics}).

It must be kept in mind that in those times, and as a consequence of the increase of the personal and familiar income and the consolidation of an urban middle class, the number of women accessing university studies increased as well; they started attending not only humanistic-related courses —which are generally highly feminized— but also law, economics, business, etc. These women were mainly the daughters of professional people or businessmen.

The feminization of the law degree represented an increment in the presence of women in companies and professional firms, although most of the times holding less qualification positions because of their functions and economic conditions rather than the ones that because of their qualifications would be entitled to. Having a position in the public administration enabled women to compete against men under the same conditions, opening with this a space for qualified women, although there were still discrimination to access positions of maximum responsibility in which the female presence was very scarce on those years (and although when this is achieved, the positions are held in social or assistance organisms, but not in economic-related organisms, those which are more related with productivity)

Law 96/1966 from December 28^th, suppresses the established limitation in section c) number two, article three of Law 1961, July 22nd on women's rights , and allows them access magistrate, judges and prosecutors positions. This normative change is justified because, according to what is stated in the Preface of the Law, "such an exception gave answer to a protection of women's feelings when faced with certain actions their duty would certainly make them experience, rather than a lack of responsibility or capability to be in charge of such positions". This is produced in an apparently open political moment created by the nation's government which by all means is trying to gain its integration to Europe.

Currently, in the last promotions for the access to the judicial career, women surpass men in numbers. The analysis of the figures from the annual reports on the demographic structure of the judicial career indicates this process of change. Women's access to the Spanish judiciary has taken place mainly during the last three decades,³ even if there has been an uprising trend, and this is confirmed by the income information on 2014, as the percentage of women in free turn⁴ reached 63.2% of the total. In the case of other turns different to the free turn, two male workers accessed the positions per one woman accessing them.

If we consider the way professionals had access to the Spanish judiciary career, we can observe that in the case of women it is mainly through the free turn (96.6%), generating a discrimination in relation to any other way of entry, especially as "jurist of renowned competence" (15-20 years of professional practice), this despite the fact that there are female jurists within the Spanish law branch with international reputation, which shows the difficulties women face to compete, not because lack of qualifications, but rather because of the difficulties encountered when trying to conciliate between professional and familiar obligations.

In the case of the military judicial turn, it is because of the little correlation between women and the judicial topics related to the Armed Forces. These gender related differences are still occurring, as Table 1 ⁵ shows (period 2005-2014), despite the number of women entering the judicial career.

The average age of the members of such career confirms once more this trend toward feminization as the number of female judges and magistrates under 50 years of age is higher than that of over 50-year-old male judges and magistrates (Table 2); this is due to the number of women who have had access to the judiciary, mainly in the last years. Together with this, we observe a relatively young judicial system as 61.7% of its members are less than 50 years of age; this difference is significant since the group of women is younger.

The comparison between data from 2005 and 2014 shows this change and how women are increasingly taking higher responsibility positions. The judicial career is socially recognized and well-regarded and it provides higher salaries in comparison to those offered to other professionals working for the administration, as well as more favorable working conditions in terms of workload distribution, working hours, etc., without gender based differences.

In spite of the fact that women outnumber men, they are still a minority in higher judicial organisms such as the National Court, Supreme Courts of the Autonomous Communities, Supreme Court or senior judges despite the fact that 40 years have passed since women were granted access to positions in justice administration. Their presence is higher at court where they have had presence since the beginning of the judicial career (see Table 3), as mentioned by ^{Robles (2004:48)}.

The presence of women is very similar to that of men in the different Courts throughout Spain under the different judicial parties without presenting a correlation of the type of court (First instance, instruction, mixed, familiar, criminal, social, minors and penitentiary surveillance) and gender for a preference of personnel in terms of their areas of expertise, since Familiar or Minor Tutelage, positions are held by both men and women indistinctively; the same occurs with the Provincial Audiences.

If we consider the Central Organisms of the Judicial Power (Table 3) the presence of women is small with a significant difference when compared with the male presence. This, despite the fact that there is a large number of women with more than sufficient experience and professional qualifications to be eligible for positions of responsibility at higher courts (National Court and the presidency of the Supreme Courts of the Autonomous Communities and Provincial Courts). As ^{Ribas (2014)} mentions, the presence of women in sectors that are traditionally led by men, and especially in power and responsibility positions historically assigned to men, has not increased at the same pace, creating a vertical segregation in reference to the little female presence at higher hierarchic levels.

However, this situation has started to change in recent years with the approval of the Organic Law 3/2007, from March 22nd, for the effective equality between men and women, and whose article 16 states that "the public powers shall ensure the principle of a balanced presence of men and women in the appointment and designations to the pertinent responsibility positions". The Strategic Plan of Opportunity Equality (2008-2011), approved by the Council of Ministers on December 14^th, 2007, establishes as a strategic objective 3: "To increment the participation of women in management and responsibility in the judicial power", and in order to achieve this, it promotes the development of Commissions provided by the Organic Law 3/2007, from March 22nd.

In order to favor opportunities equality in the justice administration, the General Council of the Judicial Power approved a Book of Regulations in February 2010 which regulates the allocation of discretionary positions in the judicial organs.

There is a demand from judges and magistrates so a more objective system for the allotment of higher responsibility positions is established, as seen in the V Encuesta a la Carrera Judicial -5th Judicial Career Survey ⁶ (Chart 2), where a modification of the position assignment criteria by the General Council of the Judicial Power of Supreme Court magistrates and the presidency in their courts is proposed; the magistrates and the presidency of the Autonomous Communities Supreme Courts and the presidencies of the Provincial Courts. And that the experience in the jurisdictional experience and in the collegiate organ is considered more important, as well as seniority in the hierarchy and in the collegiate organ which is intended to preside. While on the other hand, that the interview to the candidates in which their exposition of aptitudes and merit takes a second place.

The May 20^th, 2011 Resolution, the Ministry of State for the Public Office which issues the Acuerdo del Consejo de Ministros —Ministers Council Agreement of January 28th, 2011, by which the First Equility between men and women in the State General Administration and Public Organisms Plan was issued and which establishes in its Eje 2 [Second thesis], as one of the Plan most important objectives: "To promote and improve the possibilities for women to Access responsibility positions"

In order to stop this situation and comply with what was established in the approved rulings to favor equal opportunities for any gender, the same General Council of the Judicial Power approved, on February 14^th, 2013, a Plan of Equality in the Judicial Career to accomplish effective equality between men and women within the judicial organs, and more specifically to facilitate the promotion of women with the merits and capabilities to be in charge in government, as well as magistrates in the Supreme Court.

Moreover, the plan establishes eleven strategic axes of the General Council of the Judicial Power to favor the equality in several aspects; among of the most relevant are the following: access to the judicial career by the restricted turn, professional formation and promotion, sensitization and conciliation with familiar life and a higher participation in the decision-making organs. As we can observe in the yearly memoirs and reports, measures are being taken, even though their effects are not as speedy as it was desired.

Nowadays, the General Council of the Judicial Power comprises 12 magistrates, of which nine are women, which implies an important change having in mind that during the period between 2001 and 2008 only two female magistrates were part of this organ. Therefore, we must consider that there is institutional availability to eradicate gender discrimination in the access to great responsibility positions in the judiciary and collegiate decision-making organs.

Feminization of justice from the perspective of its own performers

The CGPJ of Spain has carried out various consultations among those who take part in the Spanish judicial career on topics relevant at the different stages, and whose results are gathered in studies and reports. For this research the main ones that refer to gender are considered.

The documents that were taken into account were the VI Barómetro de Opinión de la Judicatura Española [6th Opinion Barometer of the Spanish Judiciary⁷], the V Encuesta a la Carrera Judicial [5th Judicial Career Survey], and the Encuesta a la carrera judicial sobre conciliación de la vida familiar [Judicial Career Survey on the reconciliation of family life⁸], as well as the other cited documents. Such information is completed with references to interviews with magistrates who have had access to responsibility positions and which have been published by the Spanish press.⁹

Following, we gather the information provided by very male and female actors, judges, magistrates on the feminization process the Spanish judicial system is currently experiencing:

Conclusions

The feminization of the Spanish justice system is a reality, just as it is so in many other countries. This process is taking place throughout all public departments as the possibility of accessing such departments depends mainly on personal merits, and gender discrimination tends to disappear. This progressive and constant incorporation of women in the public office, generally speaking, and more specifically in the judiciary system, can be explained from the interrelation of factors at three levels that make such change possible (^{Saltzman, 1992}):

The possibilities of a female magistrate to access the higher organs is somehow conditioned by the existence of some sectors in the magistrature that still prefer male personnel for those positions, and in other cases, by the needs of mixing the personal and professional life which implies an impediment to participate in the promotions for discretional assignation positions. The glass ceiling still exists, used not only by the institutional resistance which is disappearing-but because the women-mother role hinders their possibilities of competing with their male peers, who are in a way freer from familiar responsibilities; this despite the fact that they (men) state in the questionnaires that they are equally conditioned.

Therefore, the origin of this professional discrimination also resides in the existing inequality in the domestic sphere for which they are educated and where the old role distribution is maintained (^{Bourdieu, 2005: 45}; ^{Touraine, 2007}); hence, as younger generations are educated and take a more egalitarian distribution of family roles, women's opportunities in the labor field increase and a more just society will ensue.

The public-domestic dichotomy is reflected in the differences men and women face when trying to access administration positions in the basic scales, with a growing number of women who have opted for choosing more stable positions whereas men have selected positions with higher economic remuneration and benefits in the private industry. However, this trend could be reversed due to the economic crisis since the high unemployment rates experienced by both genders could lead to a higher motivation in men to hold positions that were not appealing in the past in order to achieve better professional stability.