Meet NAWJ Research Intern Sophie Feldman

Sophie Feldman is the NAWJ Research Intern. She is gathering a database of women judges throughout the US and working on special projects. She is taking a gap year from Harvard where she is majoring in Social Studies and Linguistics and focuses on gender equality for women. Sophie has served as the Director of the Commission on the Status of Women policy simulations at Harvard. Sophie applied to NAWJ to help “further women’s political empowerment, provide meaningful judicial support to historically disadvantaged groups, and advocate for parity in the legal profession.”  

I am currently a rising junior at Harvard University studying Social Studies and Linguistics with a minor in Norwegian, and I am writing because I want to help contribute to the work that the National Association of Women Judges is doing to further women’s political empowerment, provide meaningful judicial support to historically disadvantaged groups, and advocate for parity in the legal profession.

During my time at Harvard, I have had the privilege to research women’s experiences in a variety of different contexts. In my first year at Harvard, I was fortunate to participate in an engaged scholarship course called “Sexism and Politics.” This class introduced me to the world of women’s judicial initiatives. Through it, I was able to create a 20 page original research paper on Women’s Candidate Groups (an abbreviated version of which is included as my writing sample), present research on state-based disparities in women’s political representation to a MA Congressional Representative, and create short educational videos to counter harmful gender stereotypes.

Perhaps most importantly, this experience gave me insight into the necessity and timeliness of achieving gender parity in the judicial branch.

In addition to my coursework, I have also participated in this field extracurricular. This past February, I    served as the Director of the Commission on the Status of Women, a policy-simulation that allowed me to oversee fifty college students and manage a team of four Harvard students. In the year that I spent preparing for this directorship, I wrote a 100-page paper on child brides, assigned blog posts, and facilitated communication between myself and my delegates.