A Jury of Her Peers by Susan Glaswell

This is great short story that demonstrates a powerful message over a limited number of pages.  The central character is a woman that we never meet, Minnie Foster, now Mrs. Wright.  She has been arrested after her husband was found hung by his bedpost.  The sheriff and the prosecuting attorney go to the Wright's house to look for evidence of her guilt, and they have brought two women along, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters, the sheriff's wife to collec the things that Mrs. Wright wants while she is in jail.

Mrs. Hale knew Minnie Foster as a girl, and she quite shocked by the spartan existence that she lived with her husband.  The house is shabby and colorless, and her clothes match that state of affairs.  Mrs. Hale regrets that she never made time to see her old friend, letting the chores of life on the farm prevent her from being a good neighbor.  The women do find evidence that would explain why Mrs. Wright would have been provoked to kill her husband.  They ponder their role as women and citizens of the town, and they make a decision about what to do with the evidence.  The men, of course, have not been altogether respectful of women in general, and the role of women in maintaining life as they know it.  So Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters do not feel comfortable leaving Mrs. Wright's fate in their hands.  Excellent read.