Les rouages du genre. La différenciation des pratiques de travail chez les juges des enfants

When women and men occupy apparently identical positions, do they develop exactly the same working practices? Based on a survey of youth court judges, the article directly tackles this tricky question, one rarely raised in relation to the highest professions. After showing that gender contributes to differences in judicial practices, but not in the sense of gender stereotypes, it identifies the mechanisms through which it operates. Far from acting in isolation, uniformly and independently of the contexts of practice, it works through complex and sometimes contradictory processes, always closely linked with the other dimensions of professional and social pathways. In this case, gender produces its effects through two primary mediations: one, the attitudes of each judge to psycho-educational norms, and two, their attitudes to gender stereotypes.