Women Sticking Up for Women

Throughout history, women have banded together to fight discrimination and oppression. Whether you know the woman or not, we all have a connection to one another, because we are women. But what is most interesting is that in the short story, "A Jury of Her Peers" by Susan Glaspell, the women protect one another, against the law. Feeling a connection and being sympathetic towards a woman is one thing, but risking your own morals and freedom for someone you barely know, is a completely different matter.

For women, it seems to be that domesticity and motherhood has always been tied to them. And women have grown to be proud of this. We can see in "A Jury of Her Peers", that when Mary Hale is asked to go with her husband, in the middle of cooking, she is ashamed of leaving the kitchen a mess: "But what her eye took in was that her kitchen was in no shape for leaving: her break all ready for mixing, half the flour sifted and half unsifted." (1) Her house, her realm, is the place she is most proud of. The one thing she can control and be dominant over is the house. And when the Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters enter into Minny Foster's kitchen, they feel for her. The kitchen is a complete mess, and they begin to clean it because they know that they would never have liked anybody to see their own kitchens like that. "I'd hate to have men comin' into my kitchen,' she said testily—‘snoopin' round and criticizin'" (7). Not only this, but when the two wives discover that Minny's fruit has been ruined, they decide not to tell her, to save her anymore grief at this time in her life. 

It isn't just in the story, "A Jury of Her Peers" that we can see women sticking together. In school, girls band together to form 'cliques' or groups, that support each other. They have their ups and downs, but if they are truly friends, they are always there for each other. In the 19th and 20th century, when women were fighting for their rights, they stuck together because they had no one else. They all wanted the same thing, and therefore were connected in a way that men would never be to women. They created labor unions, temperance societies, suffrage associations; all to fight on their own behalf. In addition, I also believe that the reason women feel the need to support each other is because they can’t connect to men. They may have a man in their life that they love, but that bond may never replace the one they have with their best friend. Genders connect with the same gender, it has always been that way. And don’t get me wrong, men can have a connection with women, girls can have best friends who are guys. But I think that the bond you form with your own sex can potentially be stronger than any bond with the opposite sex.