Lizzie and Patriarchy
In “Either Way it Goes Down . . . America’s 54 Women on Death Row in the Context of Patriarchy,” DeAnna M. Horne examines “the experience of women in the criminal justice system” and concludes that “sex-role stereotyping prevails over context-specific reasoning” and that “the application of justice for women is skewed.”
She uses the first 15 pages to examine the Lizzie Borden case as a traditional way of “looking at women in the criminal justice system.”
Her conclusion?
In the view of chivalry theorists, “real†women are spared from harsh treatment by our criminal justice system due to their perceived feminine nature. Women are less responsible for their actions, in this view, and therefore, less culpable and less likely to pose a continuing danger to society. “Real†women are hysterical, childlike, weak, and delicate. They are white and they are rich. True ladies—idle, respectable, proper, and useless—can not murder. They are wholly dependant upon men and they are victims totally subsumed by male domination. They are naturally timid, fit only for the domestic sphere. They are fit only for the role of wife and mother. If a man won’t marry them, these women may still behave with propriety, but it must be in the service of a man. “Real†women don’t kill.
When women accused of violent crime are seen as “real†women, they are acquitted, like Lizzie, or given sentences that are relatively light. Even if the jury had believed that Lizzie killed her parents, the perceived weak and passive nature of women make them less culpable for any violent crimes they have committed. In the view of the chivalry theory, Lizzie Borden was acquitted because as a woman she was weak, submissive, dependent and passive.
For the complete text of this 47-page article, you can download the PDF here.
