Bias Against Women

• Hedidensohn 1996: courts treat women unfairly when they deviate from gender norms 
• Sharpe 2009: 7/11 girls were referred for support as they were sexually active but none of the 44 boys (youth worker record) 
• Stewart 2006: magistrates perceptions of females were based on stereotypical gender roles 
• Carlen 1997: when women jailed, ‘the seriousness of their crimes and more according to the assessment of them as wives, mothers and daughters’ 
• Smart 1989: quotes Judge Wild ‘Women who say no do not always mean no. It is not just a question of how she says it, how she shows and makes it clear. If she doesn’t want to she only has to keep her legs shut’ 
• Walklate 1998: in rape cases it is not the defendent on trial but the victim who has to prove her respectability in order to have her evidence accepted. 
• Adler 1987: women who are deemed to lack respectability find it difficult to have their testimony believed in court