In my last post I mentioned going with my female intuition. I believe and trust in it, so recently I was reading some short stories, while actually thinking about writing a blog post on something besides politics or foreign policy for a change, when I came across this very cleverly written short story that garnered being labeled “early feminist literature” or perhaps it’s chick lit. The story, “A Jury of Her Peers”, written in 1917, by Susan Glaspell, was loosely based on a murder case she covered in her career as a journalist, with the plot centering on a man strangled in his Iowa farmhouse, where the only suspect is his wife. Glaspell originally wrote the story as a play, Trifles, with the unfolding plot brilliantly showcasing how the men in this story do not take women seriously, especially homemakers and dismiss the things women deal with as “trifles”. I sure don’t want to delve into some feminist debate or as this story unfolds the morality of the choices the two women make, but instead, the way in which the male and female characters interact while observing the same crime scene rings very true to real life. Without giving too much of the story away here’s a short passage:
“The county attorney looked at the two women they were leaving alone there among the kitchen things.
“Yes–Mrs. Peters,” he said, his glance resting on the woman who was not Mrs. Peters, the big farmer woman who stood behind the sheriff’s wife. “Of course Mrs. Peters is one of us,” he said, in a manner of entrusting responsibility. “And keep your eye out, Mrs. Peters, for anything that might be of use. No telling; you women might come upon a clue to the motive–and that’s the thing we need.”
Mr. Hale rubbed his face after the fashion of a showman getting ready for a pleasantry.
“But would the women know a clue if they did come upon it?” he said; and, having delivered himself of this, he followed the others through the stair door.”
https://americanliterature.com/author/susan-glaspell/short-story/a-jury-of-her-peers
Now for a look at the secret lives of real chicks, check out G. Murphy Donovan’s exposé, “Attila the Hen”, in his entertaining tale from the coop:
“In all hen parties, there’s usually a bird that ruffles too many feathers for whatever reason. So it was with our Hillary, the runt of her litter. Our petite one is so named because she is more than a bit shifty, ambiguously unpopular, and annoying in ways that only other hens appreciate; in short, a victim by default midst cool gals with attitudes.
Alas, unlike lady lips, chicken lips are lethal weapons. The big hens started with Hillary’s comb and then pecked her bald. “Pecking order,” in the bird world, is no metaphor. Nor is hair pulling. When we saw blood, we had to separate the runt from the rest.”
Ok, let’s waddle on back to the female intuition topic. Here’s a bit from a 2013 Scientific American article that explains some new research:
“Men aren’t from Mars and women aren’t from Venus, but their brains really are wired differently, a new study suggests.
The research, which involved imaging the brains of nearly 1,000 adolescents, found that male brains had more connections within hemispheres, whereas female brains were more connected between hemispheres. The results, which apply to the population as a whole and not individuals, suggest that male brains may be optimized for motor skills, and female brains may be optimized for combining analytical and intuitive thinking.”
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-mens-brains-are-wired-differently-than-women
My infallible female intuition tells me y’all are ready to nod off now. Have a good night:-)
libertybelle diaries 
Allow me to add some anecdotal evidence. Back in the day, before I came in from the cold, I had a stable of analysts that worked for me. I say stable because most of those government apparatchiks couldn’t find a meadow muffin in a horse stall. When you spend too much time in government, you tend to tell your boss what he wants to hear not what he needs to know. The few women, in most case, were different. Males were overly influenced by what they already believed. Women were more open to evidence. Males were also reluctant to make a common sense call on tentative evidence. Women, in contrast, were happy to make an intuitive judgement triggered by intuition, feeling, or a hunch. I always preferred to think of intuition as insight. Some have it, some don’t. The bonus with babes is that they always behaved better on road trips. Now you can take a nap, Belle.
Same. Mine, not at that level most admittedly.
My wife’s intuition is something to behold. She has her Mother’s ability in that aspect. Uncanny. We are sneaking up on 40 years married and she still has it. I understand the necessity of female intuition and the important role it plays in life choices when a woman is young. I didn’t know the talent improved with age. Some of my wife’s high school girl friends may have had some of that intuition when young…but oh the choices they made. It seems intuition is pointless if ignored. SWMBO informs me that her intuition is why I am married to her and for this long. Naturally I agree. I used to labor under the false notion that my youthful good looks and frightfully decent sense of chivalry played a role.
Methinks, necessity is the mother of invention with ladies: wives, mothers, and, in many cases, breadwinners too. Hard to hoe that row without common sense. With men it’s more like too old too soon, too smart too late. Robert has his finger on the pulse of success. The biggest mistake that most men make in life is not a honoring a good woman when he finds one. Women have the good grace to outlive us too – more gravy for us and another burden for them.
” too old too soon, too smart too late
Thanks gentlemen and GMD that’s a good PA Dutch saying, although around my neck of the woods, growing up, it came out, “Ve get too soon old und too late schmart.” My Pop also told us to “Make the lights out.” and my husband was confused when I said, “It’s all.” referring to anything that was empty or gone, like an empty pitcher or no more pie left (usually shoofly, lol).
http://www.padutchculture.com/ferhoodled.html
You have GOT to go to Chris Muir’s on-line comic strip “Day By Day” and read his strip for today… (Although if you have not yet discovered DBD you need to go to his website anyway and sign up for the daily auto downloads. He does smart, hip, political commentary from a right-side perspective and is both topical and regularly howlingly funny. My Bride, conservative, university administrator and a PhD in History, loves his stuff too, and we regularly kick in during his annual fund-raiser to keep him publishing his on-line ‘toons. (Sign-up is free…)