omen belong in all places where decisions are made. It shouldn’t be that women are the exception.” Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg of the United States Supreme Court, in an interview with BBC Newsnight in 2017, repeated her famous response to questions about women’s equality in the Supreme Court. According to her when she became a Supreme Court judge, there were six women in the Senate. She was the second woman in the Supreme Court. When Justice O’Connor left, she was alone but soon received the company of two colleagues: Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Justice Elena Kagan. When asked when she thought there would be enough women in the Supreme Court, she would laugh and respond when there were nine – meaning a full bench in the US Supreme Court. According to her, for the majority of the US’s history, there had been no issue with having nine men so why not nine women.

The current situation in Pakistan seems to be akin to the circumstances when Ginsberg was elevated to the US Supreme Court. The first female judge was appointed in 2022 to Pakistan’s Supreme Court. Justice Ayesha Malik’s appointment was followed by the appointment of Justice Musarrat Hilali in 2023, who had earlier been appointed as the first female chief justice of Peshawar High Court.

There had been attempts in the past to appoint women to the Supreme Court. Justice Fakhar-un Nisa Khokhar of the Lahore High Court was not appointed to the Supreme Court despite a Supreme Court judgment suggesting that the senior most judge of a High Court could have the ‘expectation’ to be appointed as chief justice. Justice Khokhar, however, was not elevated to this position.

This was evidence of systemic barriers women face in getting leadership roles in the legal sector. It has sometimes been argued that the lack of female judges in the apex courts can be justified in terms of a scarcity of competent women in law. Such claims overlook the systemic issues preventing women from participating effectively in the profession. The establishment of gender-based violence courts and initiatives by the Ministry of Law and Justice towards gender inclusivity in law are steps in the right direction. However, achieving gender equality in the judiciary requires an overhaul of societal perceptions and structural biases against women.

Inclusion of women in the courts is a significant marker of progress towards gender equality and empowerment. This inclusion is vital for ensuring diverse perspectives in the legal processes and for addressing gender-specific issues more effectively. Pakistan has seen a gradual increase in the number of women judges. Women now serve at all levels of the judiciary, including the Supreme Court, high courts and lower courts. However, the proportion of women in these positions remains low.

The State of Women’s Representation in Judiciary in Pakistan, launched in 2024 by Women in Law, found that in 2023 only 6 percent of the judges in superior courts were female, representing a marginal increase of one percent over the 2020 baseline. Sindh High Court had the highest number with three female judges, followed by one in Lahore High Court and one in Islamabad High Court. Women’s representation in the subordinate judiciary was significantly better than at the highest tier. In 2023, women made up 17 percent of the judges. 99 percent of them were in the subordinate judiciary. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa led the proportion at 25 percent.

The movement towards women’s inclusion in the courts must happen at all levels. It begins with the pursuit of a law degree, followed by the acquisition of a licence to practice in subordinate courts, a High Court licence and then a Supreme Court licence. There has been a significant increase in the number of law graduates and women entering the profession as lawyers and legal advisors. Educational institutions offering legal studies have seen a rise in female enrolment, contributing to a growing pool of women qualified to enter the legal field.

Despite these trends, women in Pakistan’s legal sector face numerous challenges, including gender bias, workplace harassment, limited access to mentorship and networking opportunities and societal pressures that can hinder career advancement and participation. The socio-cultural constraints include a lack of trust in female litigator’s capability.

Inclusion must not be an exception; it should be the norm. Despite the obstacles they have faced, Pakistani women continue to break the barriers. They must go on. They must persevere.

The writer is an advocate of the High Court, a founding partner at Lex Mercatoria and a visiting teacher at Bahria University’s Law Department. She can be reached at minahil.ali12@yahoo.com