The fight for womanhood

A jury of her peers", by Susan Glaspell is a compelling short story, that causes the reader through contemplation and inspection of Glaspell's perspective on sexual injustice to profoundly develop ones cultural understanding. Compared to "Sweat" by Zora Neale Hurston, many striking similarities are evident. Firstly Delia's competence in overcoming her husband's wicked nature is illustrated in her accomplishment to endure and resist her husband's abuse and preserve her Ethical certitude by means of her work and her faith. In the same way that the men find no evidence that Mrs. Wright killed her husband and in the end the women essentially act as the 'jury' in not giving the clues that prove Mrs. Wright of murder away. More significantly the men in the story also regard their wives as the 'weaker sex', only beneficial as workers of the household sector; a sector that the men view as trivial. However in the end "whatever goes over the Devil's back is got to come under his belly".

What really had an affect on me was the fact that Mr. Peter and Mr. Hale were completely oblivious to the little details of the house, which compromised of all the little clues that would solve the case.

In "A jury of her peers", when the sheriff was asked if there were any evidence in the kitchen, the Sheriff simply looked around assuming "nothing here but kitchen things" with a little laugh of the insignificance of kitchen things. In "Sweat", he only takes Skye’s lack of sympathy towards the wretchedness and terrors his wife encounters, as a sport. He does not seem to care about all the "work and sweat..." that Delia has been through after the marriage. Her domestic life to Skyke's is completely insignificant. When Delia challenges Sykes's abuse, "seizing the iron skillet from the stove and (striking) a defense pose", Sykes is a "little awed by this new Delia" and as a result tries to get rid of her with the snake. It saddens me to think of women as nothing more but objects to the cruel and powering men standing above them. Both stories still contain stereotypes that to this day prevail, however I think that the two stories represent a turning point in the 20th Century when women began to stand up for their equality. Whether it is keeping quite as Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hales did in a "jury of her peers" or defending yourself against an abusive husband, a transformation of power and the initiative spirit to fight for their individual female right is confirmed through the endings of the two short stories.