A Jury of Her Peers

The story ‘A Jury Of Her Peers’, written by Susan Glaspell begins repeating back to its readers many of the gendered stereotypical assumptions women receive from men all their lives. Women are assumed to be concerned only with trifles, to be unintelligent, inferior to men and have social limitations placed on them. Yet Glaspell proves how untrue these comments can be, ultimately portraying women as stronger characters when they find their own independence. Women use bonding and moral judgment as means of gaining power and dignity against men to create new gendered assumptions about their characters. The assumption that women are concerned only with trifles is present in ‘A Jury Of Her Peers’. Glaspell reveals this gendered assumption through the comments passed by the sheriff about Mrs Wright being “Held for murder and worrying about her preserves.” Mr Hale than expands on this remark, brushing it off stating “Women are used to worrying over trifles.” Mr Hale is implying that women have nothing meaningful or worthwhile to worry about. Further into the story women are once again ridiculed, this time for wondering about Mrs Wright’s quilt. The sheriff mocks them for their intrigue laughing, “They wonder whether she was going to quilt it or knot it!” The sheriff is implying that women’s lives revolve around domestic affairs and they are incapable of thinking about anything else. These remarks show the disrespect from men and the assumed trifles in women’s lives in ‘A Jury Of Her Peers’. Glaspell puts forward that women are inferior and it is their duty to follow men. This can be seen in the very first paragraph as we give our first impressions on the story. Mrs Hale was expected to leave with her kitchen “in no shape for leaving: her bread already for making, half the flour sifted and half unsifted.” She was then impatiently hurried to not “keep the folks waiting…in the cold.” This was extreme. My argument is definitely women empowerment and how our genders can affect our individual and social identity.