The Eighth Circuit has the lowest proportion of women judges in the country and a group there has set out to change that.
In 2007, a group of women lawyers and law professors founded the Infinity Project - the number eight on its side - to push for greater gender diversity.
Diana Murphy, 74, tapped by President Clinton in 1994, is the only woman to have ever served on the Eighth Circuit, which encompasses seven midwestern states. There's also only one woman on the First Circuit, but the proportion is worse on the Eighth, which has more judges, says Sally Kenney, a University of Minnesota political scientist and Infinity Project leader.
There's currently no vacancy on the Eighth Circuit but Infinity Project leaders say their goal is to increase public awareness and increase the pool of potential candidates.
Lisa Brabbit, an associate dean at St. Thomas Law School in St. Paul, Minn. and one of the leaders of the group, says they're trying to encourage more women to consider pursuing a judgeship and offer mentoring to those who are interested.
"You have to do the preparatory work so that when there is a vacancy the decision makers are fully prepped and prepared to excercise good judgment," Brabbit says.
Kenney says she's optimistic about what the Obama administration might do but is committed to keep pushing.
"We will not tolerate our courts being filled only by men," Kenney wrote in a recent column in Women's eNews.
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