Job satisfaction in the judiciary

Abstract

This article examines job satisfaction among judicial officers in Australia. Increasing numbers of women have entered the judiciary and their job satisfaction is a key route to understanding their experiences of this elite role. This paper applies concepts of job satisfaction to the judiciary and investigates gender differences. Data from two national surveys demonstrate that women and men across the Australian judiciary express very high levels of overall job satisfaction, though areas of dissatisfaction exist, in particular regarding work–life balance. Gender differences do not appear to be direct, but mediated by other characteristics which are gender-related. Broadly, these findings demonstrate that a full understanding of job satisfaction now requires attention to family/domestic demands and commitments and the workplace context, as well as to the intrinsic nature of the work and the extrinsic characteristics of the job.