Judge — December 30, 1916 — page 11: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This cartoon satirizes women's educational choices at Northwestern University. Three fashionably dressed women discuss their friend Gwen's career switch from law to medicine. The joke relies on a period stereotype: that law involves studying "dead" cases (precedents from past legal decisions), while medicine involves treating living patients. The satire targets early 20th-century attitudes about women professionals. The caption implies Gwen finds medicine more appealing than law's intellectual/historical focus—suggesting women prefer direct, practical work over abstract scholarship. This reflects both the novelty of women in higher education and contemporary assumptions about their supposedly different professional interests and capabilities. The ornate building in the background establishes the university setting, while the women's elaborate hats and clothing date the piece to the early 1900s.