Gender Blog Post #2

A Jury of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell

3. What common assumptions about women are shared by the men in the story? How do they try to show that they do not think women to be their inferiors? How are their assumptions ironic?

 One common assumption the men have about women is that they are supposed to be good housewives and keep the place looking nice. They believe that women are supposed to be good in the kitchen. When the county attorney is looking around the kitchen and kicking pans, he says, "Dirty towels! Not much of a housekeeper, would you say, ladies?" (Glaspell 412).  He's making a jab at the fact that women really have one job and she can't do that job. I find it funny when they are talking about the preserves and how the women in the room are thinking about Mrs. Wright's feelings about the ruined fruits because the men just kind of laugh and are like "oh she's on trial for murder, I'm sure she's going to worry about her fruit". This short story is very stereotypical of men and women. The irony in the situation is that the men don't think of them as inferior, yet they brought them along to investigate. The women are the one's who do the real investigating though. They actually figure out motive and can rationalize why Minnie murdered her husband. The men don't realize that the quilt, the box, the birdcage, they were all evidence that pointed to Minnie's motive. They just brushed them off as jokes because they're men and don't take anything seriously.