Hardships And Recognition In Susan Glaspell's A Jury Of Her Peers

Female Hardships and Recognition in Susan Glaspell’s “A Jury of Her Peers”

A Woman’s voice is far from being heard. Since the early nineteenth century, women have been treated unfairly and their thoughts, opinions, and work were never believed to be serious or educated enough to consider. In Susan Glaspell’s, “A Jury of Her Peers”, she writes that Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters were women who happened to accompany their husbands to a crime scene. While their husbands were busy mocking women and finding humor in the situation, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale were the ones to find enough evidence to support the motive of the murder. Even though they were intelligent enough to find the necessary clues to solve the murder mystery, their husbands would have

not remitted the evidence they found. The women realized this issue and kept quiet about their discoveries. Woman have made wonderful strides to secure liberation and equal opportunities since 1917 when “A Jury of Her Peers” was published. However, even with the advancements in feminism made over the last century, women continuously suffer from distancing themselves of what society thinks they should be. While women struggle to gain a voice, and equal rights, the challenges that Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale face, ultimately guide them to work together forming an unspoken bond.
History has led many individuals to believe that women were objects and treated poorly compared to how men were perceived. The Nineteenth Century was a momentous period for women. They faced many hardships such as: The lack of rights, the inability to vote, and the distinguishing difference of gender roles. Each of these distinctions have left an assumption of how women should be treated over the past century. The representation of women banished to the kitchen, while their husbands worked hard to bring in money for their families has lived on in memories for many individuals. History has taught society that women baked, cleaned, and kept the house according to how their husbands liked it. Women had little respect, were generally less educated, and had to fight to even be considered a person with a voice of their own rather than a man’s object or accessory. Christopher Sailus who wrote Feminism in the 19th Century: Women’s Rights, Roles, and Limits, explains that “women were entirely shut out of the public sphere of the 19-th century society unless they were accompanying their husbands or fathers.” It was not until the succession of securing protests, parades, associations, and the Women Rights Movement that feminism had begun to form. Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia published that on “August 20, 1920 the government passed the Nineteenth Amendment giving women the ability to vote.” A house may have been ruled by men, but a kitchen was seen as a woman’s space that a majority of men would not dare to enter. Cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the family were accepted as the social norm for women and the lack of opportunities were obvious.
Glaspell shows the absence of liberation and feminism with how the females accept the treatment from their male husbands.

Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale are often referred to as “housekeepers.” Within the very first paragraph, the scene is set and so is the image of each genders role. The short story begins with Martha Hale hurrying to leave her home, “her eye made a scandalized sweep of her kitchen. It was no ordinary thing that called her away--it was probably further from ordinary than anything that had ever happened in Dickson County. But what her eye took in was that her kitchen was in no shape for leaving: her bread all ready for mixing, half the flour sifted and half unsifted” (667). The kitchen is linked to a woman’s territory. The men make light of the situation by entertaining themselves making fun of the various items in Minnie Wright’s kitchen white attempting to find what she has requested from jail. Mr. Hale ridicules the women by stating, “women are used to worrying over trifles.” (671). He signifies that women tend to worry over things that do not hold value almost as if men have more important things to be worrying about then women do. Except, it is these ‘trifles’ that ultimately proved why Mrs. Wright killed her husband. Mr. Hale also makes a point to diminish the women by making them believe they would not know if they stumbled upon evidence because they are merely just women. He states “But would the women know a clue if they did come upon it.” (672). It was easy for Glaspell to describe the gender roles in the book during this time period while women were going through these hardships. However, I wonder if both Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters contributed to the particular gender equality gaps outlined in the story between the men and women. Even the women saw certain tasks to be completed only by men. Glaspell wrote this story making the gender roles and difference clearly apparent in-between the men and women

characters.
Glaspell defines the important difference in-between the characters in many ways. The lack of details given to the women such as their appearance which is left to the reader’s imagination, and the fact that Mrs. Peters was not given a first name, showed the intentions of this story. She clearly wanted to emphasize the women’s personalities, intelligence, and perseverance something society typically does not do. Janet L. Grose explains, “the lack of first names and maiden names, emphasizes their subordinate roles to their husbands; the women seemingly have no identity apart from their spouses” (16).
The women characters in the story still refer to Minnie by her maiden name, this brings up the process a woman goes through when marrying a man. She has to change her name and Minnie Foster changed her identity entirely. Minnie who used to wear pretty clothes and be lively” (673). And who “used to sing real pretty herself” (676). Had become isolated without children to care for, and no longer had an urge to maintain for her appearance and household. Mrs. Wright committed murder because her purpose as a woman had changed. The exciting and fun filled life she had once lived had been altered into a dim lonely life. Mrs. Hale discovered the dead bird which was the last clue to crack the motive behind the murder of Mr. Wright. Mrs. Peters assisted Mrs. Hale in ensuring the evidence was hidden, both women knew the justice system was dominated by men and Mrs. Wright, being a woman would have not been given a fair trial either way.
The male characters have been given the ultimate power in this story. They believe that because the women have become domesticated, they lacked the skills to solve any issue, more than less a murder. For the most part, the men find the whole situation humorous, and devalue the women by disrespecting the only things that women actually have control of. They search for evidence and socialize with each other all while remaining oblivious to the women’s hidden agenda.
Susan Glaspell subtly twists through clues over the course of the story that communicate how men and society oppressed women during the early nineteenth century. A woman’s value has been deemed unimportant and lacks interest from the men they accompany. Women experienced enormous hardships throughout history and throughout “A Jury of Her Peers.” In-between each symbol feminism, character, and historical time presence to this particular piece, a greater feel to how women have grown over the past century is apparent. This story showed that the women were just as important as men by glorifying the woman’s ability to communicate with each other and stand strong through the mostly dominant male society and justice system.