FBI - Female Bird Investigator

      

         In a Jury of Her Peers (1916), by Susan Glaspell, a pair of adult women secretly investigate the death of John Wright, Mrs. Wright's/Minnie Foster husband, who was strangled to death. The women must work secretly because the men are the detectives and the sheriffs and the women weren't meant to do anything unless they stumbled on evidence. I think this short story is one clearly to promote female capability in masculine shoes. In fact, they do a better job! Martha Hale and Mrs. Peters discover all the evidence ("dirty pans", "half-sifted flour", a "shabby black shirt", "a bird-cage", and "a dead bird") that the sheriffs couldn't find and end up discovering both the correct suspect and the motive.

         I think the most important aspect of the story is that concept of reversal of roles. Men, especially in that time period, are the only people with high and powerful positions leaving the women to do domestic work. However, similar to the movie Legally Blonde the women use their so called ‘ridiculous’ activities and habits in order to perform a better job than the men would even with their high intelligence and supremacy. In fact, if you think about it, every evidence and clue necessary in order to discover the truth about the case was an example and symbol of female domestic work, such as the “half-sifted flour”, “the dirty pans”, “the dirty dish towel” and “the broken oven”. Most importantly, using female activities was the only way the supposedly “only possibly solved by men” case could have been solved. The women were able to relate to Minnie Foster, her work, and the poor environment she lived in and could therefore discover not only the true suspect but also the motive for her husband’s murder.

         This concept is also enforced by the men’s attitudes about the women’s careful attention to the subtle housework evidence. The men glance shamefully at any poor housework and express their opinion by commenting and purposefully harming the examples of poor housework such as when the “county attorney deranged the dirty pans under the sink with a disdainful push of the foot”. In fact, even when the women discover the motive and the evidence, the men continue to tease the women about their domestic activities which represents the men’s ignorance and that the women are just as, if not more capable in doing a “exclusively male” job.

         Finally, the women don't notify the authorities of Minnie Foster's death. Being women in the early 1900s, they are constantly degraded and oppressed and therefore, whenever they can, they group up and collaborate. In this story, this is symbolically shown through routine and repetitive eye-contact between Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters: "In a covert way, Mrs. Hale looked at Mrs. Peters. Mrs. Peters was looking at her". In addition, even when the two women discover all the evidence they need, yet whenever the men come back to the kitchen, they hide it away from the men in order not to betray Minnie Foster.  "Mrs. Hale slipped the box under the quilt pieces in the basket, and sank into the chair before it".

         I think this story was just an expression of Glaspell’s opinion regarding female equality and opportunity within the working world and showing a severe discontent with not the only the domestic housework a female is enslaved to do but also the discard of their talent and capabilities.