Rectifying the Gender Bias on Judge Panels

It’s not a new observation that elimination rounds, especially late elimination rounds, at national bid tournaments usually have few women within them. However, as debate shifts to being back in person (thank god), I’ve personally noticed fewer judges that are gender minorities on elimination round panels.

This observation prompted me to look at panels from other national tournaments this fall. While I don’t think it’s solely a question of numbers, it’s amazing how little women show up on finals panels. St Mark’s finals panel was entirely made up of men. Greenhill’s finals panel was entirely made up of men. I’ve started to think this can’t be a coincidence, right?

I know that prefs are mutual (even though somehow people still love to complain that they get terrible judges when they debate certain teams). I know that there are lots of factors that go into creating panels, and I am very appreciative of the tab staff that make an effort to increase diversity in judging. However, it seems problematic to have final panels that are entirely made up of men. Judging from my personal experience (this has not been statistically proven, yet), when judged by a man, I lose more often. I don’t know if that’s because I really lost the round, if I spoke too loudly, if I was too aggressive in CX, or any of the other factors that can shape decisions. But, I do know that this is something the community should pay attention to. Arguments, especially critical arguments, are received differently by different audiences. It’s imperative that debaters are judged by panels which take biases into account.

To rectify this, I think that it’s important for tournament staff to increase the number of women who are judging in elimination rounds. To do this, I think creating a FB group specifically for hiring gender minorities, or posting on the big High School LD Facebook group asking for more gender minorities to judge, may work. In addition, I think that more debaters should think about the kinds of people they are preffing and who fits the category of “I’ll vote on anything” or “I’m completely tab”.

With this being said, I do recognize that this could lead to some women and gender minorities being overburdened by having to judge an unfair amount of rounds. I don’t think the solution is having one woman or gender minority judge the entire tournament, but I do think increasing the diversity of hired judges is imperative. I know this is not an easy fix, and that there are many factors which go into creating the best, most fair panels for all debaters. But, I hope that this observation will be recognized, and that going forward, tournament directors may think twice before making all-male panels.

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