When Charles Dana Gibson published Studies in expression, when women are jurors, it sparked immediate conversation about the changing role of women in American society. The work appeared at a time when women were first being admitted to jury service in the United States—a legal shift that was both controversial and widely debated in newspapers and magazines. Gibson’s satirical drawings, often published in Life magazine, were known for capturing the anxieties and amusements of his era, and this particular piece became a talking point for its wry commentary on gender and justice. In the composition, a panel of women sits in judgment, their faces arranged in a sequence of exaggerated expressions—skepticism, amusement, stern resolve—each rendered with Gibson’s signature crisp line and eye for social nuance.

The artist freezes the moment just as the women weigh the fate of an unseen defendant, inviting the viewer to imagine the scene unfolding beyond the picture’s edge. The hats, gloves, and upright posture signal both the seriousness of their civic duty and the performative expectations placed upon them. Unlike the solemn gravity of Jean-Léon Gérôme’s courtroom scenes, Gibson’s approach is playful, using caricature to both lampoon and dignify his subjects, suggesting that women’s presence in the jury box is both a novelty and a force to be reckoned with. The exact date and medium of Studies in expression, when women are jurors remain uncertain, but it is characteristic of the pen-and-ink drawings that made Gibson famous in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

As with many of his works, it circulated widely in print, shaping public perceptions far beyond the original publication. Today, original drawings and printed versions are held in several American collections, including the Library of Congress. The piece stands as a testament to Gibson’s role as a chronicler of social change, and to the power of illustration in capturing the shifting tides of public life.