1921: ‘Sobby Tales of Wives Convict Many Men’
Here's another from our 'resident historian,' Richard Stephens.
Back in 1921 there were only a few female judges on the bench. But those that were around were no shrinking violets. They were vocal and firm in their challenge to the status quo. Here is what Judge Rhea M. Whitehead, presiding member of the Superior Court of Seattle, had to say on the topic of equality of the sexes in respect to the justice system:
“A Husband is going to get a square deal in my court. Too many men are convicted on sobby tales of wives!’”
According to the Boston Globe reporter who reported on Whitehead’s reformist aims: “The condition which this learned woman jurist deplores can be seen anywhere in the country in any court where domestic woes are aired, some husbands aver. The scene and the setting are identical, they say. The husband is arraigned before the court. His wife, her relatives and friends occupying the front benches, steps forward. The complaining wife then unburdens herself. Occasionally she may punctuate her recital with looks of injured feelings vaguely cast in the direction of her recalcitrant spouse. Then, having skillfully constructed her atmosphere much as a dramatist leads to a climax, she suddenly produces her handkerchief, clutches the railing before her, lets forth a heart-rending sob and the flood-gates of her tears. Thereupon the Court thunders a denunciation of the prisoner and enters an order of commitment or fine or alimony, as the case may be, and all the men on hand applaud in their hearts and cry out that here is a just judge and a rascally husband.”
Judge Rhea M. Whitehead pulled no punches in her attack on such prejudicial treatment:
“In my court, men and women will stand equal. That a woman is a dependent, helpless creature is an outworn notion, and I have absolutely no patience with a woman who comes into my court charging her husband with nonsupport merely to have the law make him stand and deliver. Some masculine judges are so sentimental that they often enter judgments against husbands without even giving the defendant a chance to be heard.”
If only we had Judge Rhea M. Whitehead with us today.
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