Running for justice? understanding women’s path to prosecutorial and judicial office

Dominant research on political ambition has largely centered white men and women, with minimal attention paid to the intersection of race and gender. Existing scholarship that does examine such disparities tends to focus on legislative office, leaving a significant gap in our understanding of judicial arenas. Women of color have become a growing presence in judicial roles, yet their unique pathways and motivations remain under-explored. This study seeks to expand the field’s understanding of how intersecting identities shape access to and experiences within judicial office. It draws on interviews with sitting judges in Louisiana, aiming to capture their motivations for pursuing the bench, perceived and actual barriers to entry, and broader perceptions of the judiciary. These narratives are supplemented by descriptive patterns of Louisiana judicial candidates from 1982 to 2025. Data from 3,000 candidates show that while women of color remain highly underrepresented overall, there is substantially more representation for women of color in judicial elections that legislative elections. Women of color also show unique motivations for running for office that stems from justice-oriented ambitions and the presence of female role models in their early lives. Integrating personal narratives with historical demographic trends, this research offers a richer picture of political ambition beyond the legislative domain to inform the pathways to true representative justice.