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UNIONTOWN, Pa. (AP) — When Fayette County Judge Nancy D. Vernon graduated law school in 1980, she was one of 10 women in a graduating class of 100.
Westmoreland County Judge Michele Bononi had a similar experience: she was one of 20 women in a graduating class of 150.
Things have changed.
"Now my daughter's going to law school, and it's about 50/50," said Bononi, a judge of seven years.
Women have been more frequently elected to the bench since 1930, when Sara M. Soffel was appointed in Allegheny County as the commonwealth's first female judge, according to the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts (AOPC). Currently, 24 percent of all magisterial district judges and 30 percent of all common pleas judges are women, according to AOPC statistics.
Two of the seven judges who serve in Fayette County — Vernon and Judge Linda Cordaro — were elected in the last decade. Vernon was the first, taking office in 2010.
"At the time I was elected (to the bench), people said I was breaking the glass ceiling, and I said it was the people of Fayette County breaking the glass ceiling," Vernon said. "I was fortunate that I was the woman at that time to be elected."
In Westmoreland, Judges Bononi, Rita Hathaway, Meagan Bilik-Defazio and Debra Pezze are four of the 11 jurists who comprise the bench. In Washington County, Judges Katherine B. Emery and Valarie S. Costanzo are two of the five jurists who have been elected to serve.
Hathaway has been a judge in the Westmoreland County Court of Common Pleas for 19 years. She was a prosecutor for the decade before, and worked an elementary school teacher before entering the world of law.
Happy with being a prosecutor, Hathaway said she never considered running for judge until the governor approved an eleventh judge position for the county, creating an open seat on the ballot in 1997.
Hathaway said she was encouraged to run, and felt she could give back to the county.
"Fortunately, I won on both tickets that year," she said.
For Hathaway, gender was never a factor in her decisions to teach, prosecute or run for a judgeship.
"I didn't want people to vote for me because I was a woman," Hathaway said. "I wanted them to vote for me because I'm the best candidate."
All of the jurists interviewed said they've experienced little or no negativity because of their gender.
"There's not such a gender gap and certainly not the gender discrimination that existed 30 to 40 years ago," Cordaro said, a judge of three years.
Cordaro recalled going to a custody hearing in another county when she first started practicing law 20 years ago. She was before a male judge and the other attorney was a man.
"When the judge looked up, he said, 'Gentlemen, are you ready to proceed?'" Cordaro said. "I don't think you'll find that among judges now."
Bilik-Defazio has been a judge for two years and said she knew she wanted to fill that role since the age of 8.
She found there wasn't any negative backlash when she was a candidate. In fact, the opposite occurred.
"More people told me they will vote for a woman judge or they would rather vote for a woman judge," Bilik-Defazio said.
However, Bilik-Defazio said while she was running, she found that people made comments on her clothing, or suggested hairstyles to make her look more older or more conservative.
"I always laughed at that," Bilik-Defazio said. "I can't imagine they said that to the male candidates."
For her, the challenge was age, not gender. Bilik-Defazio was elected when she was 38.
"There were a couple of incidents with lack of respect and it took some time to prove myself," she said. "A lot of that has faded over time."
Bononi was a hearing officer in the county's family court division when she decided to run for judge.
She said she was frustrated to see judges who spent time in family court leave that division.
She hasn't experienced bias from her colleagues, but has occasionally heard it in comments when she's ruled against men involved in family court cases — the faulty thought that she must've ruled that way because she hates all men.
Bononi said she keeps things in perspective.
When she's attended conferences with her husband, as "Judge Bononi" is called, some automatically look to him.
"And he would say, 'No, I'm the spouse,'" Bononi said. "You have to laugh about it."
In 36 years of experience practicing law, Vernon — the Fayette County's first female district attorney and likely the first female trial attorney — said her gender has never been an issue.
"I think you have to prove yourself, and if you're a competent lawyer and respected attorney, then gender doesn't fall into that equation," Vernon said.
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