A Jury of her Peers

A Jury of her Peers
Susan Glaspell

A major theme in this short story is the assumption of gender roles in society.  Since it was written nearly a hundred years ago, many things have changed and adapted in our modern society.  The kitchen was the place for women in this time, and they assumed the role of housewife and homemaker.  Interestingly, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters determined Mrs. Wright's state of mind from the way she had left her kitchen.  The men don't get much out of this because they are so used to just having women take care of those sorts of things.  "I shouldn't say she had the homemaking instinct" (Glaspell, page 413) expresses Mr. Hale's judgement of Mrs. Peters.  His wife subtly disagrees and further explains Mrs Peters' role in making their home.
The first question in the book is also interesting because I hadn't given that much thought.  Men were only granted the right to a jury of peers.  The plot of this short story is ironic because the women are the ones to discover the truth and try Mrs. Peters when the men were the ones with the original right and were thought of to be more intelligent and intuitive with matters of the law.