Diversity rises among California judges

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SAN FRANCISCO, March 1 (UPI) -- California's judiciary is becoming more diverse and women now make up nearly a third of the state's judges, a state report said.

In 2006, 27.1 percent of judges were women. By the end of 2012, the figure had risen to 31.3 percent, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Ethnic minorities also showed a slim gain from 2006 to 2012, the Times said, but continued to be underrepresented in relation to their proportion of the population.

Latinos saw a jump of 2 percentage points and African American judges rose from 4.4 percent in 2006 to 7 percent in 2012.

The report, completed by the state's Administrative Office of the Courts, also said 1.1 percent of the judges identified as lesbian and 1.1 percent as gay, but many judges did not state their sexual orientation, the Times reported.

Participation in the study was voluntary.