A Jury of Her Peers

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. How have traditional gender roles shaped society throughout history? How have they changed?

Teaching Suggestion: “A Jury of Her Peers” deals with strict gender norms that were clearly defined in the early 1900s. Preparing students for this setting can help them understand the characters' actions and motivations.

• “Changing Ideals of Womanhood During the Nineteenth-Century Woman Movement” by Susan M. Cruea of Bowling Green State University provides historical context leading up to the story’s setting.
• “Women’s Suffrage: Crash Course US History #31” by John Green overviews the era of 1890-1920 through the lens of women in the United States.

2. What do you know about Susan Glaspell? Have you read any of her work or seen any of her plays? If not, what do you imagine a feminist writer and playwright would write about in the early 1900s?

Teaching Suggestion: While students may not be familiar with Glaspell’s work, familiarizing them with her life can help provide context for the story. Students might conduct a brief “search and find” with guided biographical questions or contribute bulleted information on the whiteboard or other shared displays as they investigate this writer.