A Jury of Her Peers Q.3

In Susan Glaspell's A Jury of her Peers, the search is on for a murderer. It is already certain who the murderer is, however, and the protagonists must find evidence in order to show the motive of the murder. The story involves the sheriff and one of his friends along with their respective wives. The men in the story assume the women will be useless and tell them to leave it alone. The men's view on women is obvious in their criticisms of Mrs. Wright. Glaspell writes "Dirty towels! Not much of a housekeeper, would you say, ladies?" (412). This shows that they expect women to simply do the housework and little else. This is ironic because the women are the ones who end up finding the clue. They find the dead bird that has been killed in a similar fashion to the husband. They are the ones who end up breaking the case. This story goes to show that generalizations are often not true. The people who are supposedly least likely to find the clue are the ones who use their own detective skills.