Portia Hypothesis

The Portia Hypothesis claims women with masculine-sounding names will be more successful in the legal profession than an otherwise identical counterpart. The hypothesis is named after William Shakespeare's character from the Merchant of Venice,[1] who disguises herself as a man so she can argue as a lawyer.[2]

Evidence

A study of South Carolina judges by Bentley Coffey (Clemson University, Department of Economics) and Patrick McLaughlin (George Mason University, Mercatus Center) found evidence supporting the hypothesis.[3][4][5]

gollark: As a vegetarian, I disagree.
gollark: I'm subscribed to a service which sends me emails about what my local MP (I think the approximate US equivalent is a senator?) does, but it turns out it's actually very boring and I have no idea if they're doing a good job.
gollark: In theory voters should do that, but it's hard to actually *check* if your politician did stupid things, and it is NOT very granular.
gollark: It would probably be good if there was some mechanism for punishing politicians who spend money on things which turned out to be bad/stupid/pointless. Although someone would have to evaluate bad/stupid/pointlessness somehow.
gollark: They're still very happy to randomly spend money because the incentives to spend it on useful things are lacking.

References
  1. Alter, Adam (29 May 2013). "The Power of Names". The New Yorker. Retrieved 19 October 2018.
  2. Delistraty, Cody (30 July 2014). "Who Wins in the Name Game?". The Atlantic. Retrieved 19 October 2018.
  3. Weiss, Debra (3 September 2009). "Female Lawyers with Masculine Names May Have a Better Shot at Judgeships". ABA Journal. Retrieved 19 October 2018.
  4. Coffey, Bentley; McLaughlin, Patrick (4 August 2009). "Do Masculine Names Help Female Lawyers Become Judges? Evidence from South Carolina". American Law and Economics Review. 11 (1): 112–133. doi:10.1093/aler/ahp008.
  5. "Female lawyers with male names 'more successful'". The Telegraph. 2 November 2009. Retrieved 19 October 2018.
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