The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1920-10-13
Women Jurors In England.

When the English people start a
political or social reform they go on
with it to the bitter end. Women are
not only gaining equal rights with
men In England but they are being
compelled to assume equal burdens.
English juries may now be made up
irrespective of sex, although the courts
do not compel a man to be tried be-
fore mixed jury if he objects to the
presence thereon Of women.
The first case of a mixed jury in
England to attract general attention
recently occurred at Manchester, where
a man was arraigned for trial in the
Central Criminal Court on charge
of larceny. A woman was called as
a juror and stepped forward to be
sworn. The presiding Judge, the Re-
corder Of Manchester, inquired Of the
defendant whether he had any objec-
ton to be tried by jury composed
partly of women. He said no, and the
proposed juror was accepted. AS the
trial proceeded this lady became Ill
and finally collapsed in the jury box.
Another woman was sworn as q juror
in her place, and the testimony al
ready taken had to be given all over
again, as 1t was q criminal case, in
which very little, if anything, can be
Io~o H., oo~e.o+ 30 on,,ncoI
The illness of the woman Juror in
this early case does not initiate
against jury service by women gener-
ally. Not infrequently male jurors are
taken Ill, so that trials have to be de-
layed or are broken up on that account.
There are other reasons, however,
which would make it hardship and
otherwise Objectionable to render
women liable to jury duty to the same
extent as men.
In the case of married women, up
to middle age jury service would be
very apt to interfere with the care
they owe to their growing families.
Many mothers have no one to care for
their children during their absence
from home while attending court. Even
where some one could be found to
look after the children under such
circumstances mother worrying
about her children at home is not
usually in the best frame of mind to
make a fair and impartial juror. 1t
Is exceedingly desirable that jurors
should be absolutely free from per-
sonal or family anxieties tending to
worry them and distract attention
from the case on trial. The introduc-
ton of anxious mothers into the jury
box would be a severe blow to the
system Of trial by jury.
If women are hereafter to sit on
juries in numbers agproximating the
number of jurymen, the best service
will probably be obtainable from
spinsters, married women who are
childless and married women whose
children are grown up. No woman
with growing family Of children at
her skirts should be forced to serve
as juror. On the other hand, there
must be in this and every other large
community many scores and hundreds
of women who have no imperative
daily work to absorb their energy and
attention who are capable of aiding
the administration of justice most
usefully by assuming a share Of the
jury duty now discharged wholly by
men.
In the Manchester case 1t is evil
dent that the defendant man
might have had jury composed only
of men IL he had so desired. If the
defendant had been a woman we Won
der whether the learned Recorder
would have given her the privilege
of excluding all men from the jury.