The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine, September, 1913: Vol. LXXXVI, No. 5Various
General
The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine, September, 1913: Vol. LXXXVI, No. 5
Various
Periodicals
It would not be quite correct, if we were to draw from that the
conclusion that the women did not change their minds at all. If we
examine the number of cases in which in the course of the first,
second, and third votes some change occurred, we find changes in
forty per cent. of all judgments of the men and nineteen per cent.
of all judgments of the women. This does not mean that a change in
a particular case necessarily made the last vote different from the
first; we not seldom had a case where for instance the first vote was
larger, the second equal, and the third again larger. And, as a matter
of course, where a change between the first and the last occurred, it
was not always a change in the right direction. Moreover, it must not
be forgotten that the votes always covered three possibilities, and not
only two. It was therefore possible for the first vote to be wrong,
and then for a change to occur to another wrong vote. The nineteen per
cent. changes in the decisions of the women accordingly contained as
many cases in which right was turned into wrong as in which wrong was
turned into right, while with the men the changes to the right had
an overweight of twenty-six per cent. The self-analysis of the women
indicated clearly the reason for their mental stubbornness. They heard
the arguments, but they were so fully under the autosuggestion of their
first decision that they fancied that they had known all that before
and that they had discounted the arguments of their opponents in the
first vote. The cobbler has to stick to his last: the psychologist
has to be satisfied with analyzing the mental processes, but it is
not his concern to mingle in politics. He must leave it to others to
decide whether it will really be a gain if the jury-box is filled with
persons whose minds are unable to profit from discussion and who return
to their first idea, however much is argued from the other side. It
is evident that this tendency of the female mind must be advantageous
for many social purposes. The woman remains loyal to her instinctive
opinion. Hence we have no right to say that one type of mind is better
than another. We may say only they differ, and that this difference
makes men fit and women unfit for the task which society requires from
jurymen.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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