How were women treated in A Jury of Her Peers?

Minnie Wright is treated like the caged bird: she is imprisoned and isolated in a marriage, the subject of her husband's verbal and emotional abuse.

John Wright treats his wife like a domestic servant.  Her role is confined to the kitchen.  She used to sing (like a bird) in the church choir, but John doesn't want her away from her duties; he wishes to cut her off from the community of women.  He won't even let her have access to a recent invention, the telephone.

The couple has no children, no friends.  Minnie Wright has transformed into a slave through neglect and psychological torture.  She has no voice, very few rights, and fewer choices; she might as well be in prison, as her home has become one.  So she murders her husband in bed as revenge.