"Woman, 45, weary of Baking Cookies, Wins a PhD Degree"
For the record - Mom was good with dinners, Christmas cookies and holiday meals. Sorry, Mom, for posting this headline, but I think it is educational of the times.
At this time, I would have been between in High School. Chris was graduating from Council Rock. Mike and Matt were finishing College and Andrew was in the Intermediate or middle school. We were living 363 North Second Street Pike, between Churchville, and Richboro PA. We had been there for about 12 years.
The following was published in the "The Evening Bulletin" on June 20 1975, written by Fred Selby.
A mother of five boys, who decided in 1968 to stop being just another Bucks County housewife, has completed a study of justice in Pennsylvania
III general, and its suburbs in particular.
Janet E. Connolly, of Second Street pike. Northampton Township, won a seven year-struggle late last month to win a PhD in sociology with a dissertation on the court systems in the state.
The' 45-year-old brunette is the wife of Edward C. Connolly, a lawyer who a few years ago was defense counsel in Bucks County's most celebrated
murder trial-that of Mrs. Mary Mamon, who was convicted of a hammer murder in Levittown.
Ever since Mrs. Connolly was awarded her PhD from Temple University in Philadelphia on May 29 she's been entitled to be called "Dr. Connolly."
Joint Interview
While her husband is willing to accept the fact he's married to a liberated woman, he couldn't help commenting with a smile during a recent joint, "Any mail that comes for 'Dr. and Mrs. Connolly' gets thrown out." He also remarked. some women's lib really practiced in this house." His wife agreed, saying her, before her return to education began in 1968,"I was very domestic - sewing, embroidering, cooking."
Nostalgically her husband said "We had some great cooking." He added, "She kind of sneaked up on us. It was just going to be a few classes." Mrs. Connolly explained that here original intent was just to get a master's degree in sociology fit Temple.
Returns to Classrooms
One reason she went to graduate school, she said, was that she was tired of having men say to her, during discussions of serious topics, "Go home and bake cookies." She said, "I thought having a degree would add some weight to what I had to say."
After she'd returned to classrooms in 1968 for the first time since she'd been graduated from Chestnut Hill College in 1953 shortly before her marriage, she decided she should go for her doctorate. One reason for this, she said was that she 'believed a PhD might make it easier" to get a job in her field. She now is doing research and counseling in the penology field.
Officials Interviewed
For her doctoral dissertation, she decided to make a study of the court system in Pennsylvania
Registry at Temple
Temple University will hold registration on for the second of three summer sessions in Pearson Han, Broad and Montgomery ave., on Tuesday from 9 A.M. to 7.30 P.M. and Wednesday from 9 A.M. to 2 P.M.
"To my knowledge," she said, "this is the first time that a sociologist has looked at a whole court system ... I can't for the life of me understand why sociologists have ignored the law." During her years of research, she worked about 50 hours a week on it, often until 2 and 3 in the morning. She interviewed dozens of judges, district attorneys, public defenders, court administrators, court clerks and bar association presidents. And perhaps most importantly, she made a "dogged" search of court records, especially those of the state's Superior and Supreme courts. Her research tends to shatter some long-held beliefs of Pennsylvania's Court observers. One of these is that justice in criminal cases is being -thwarted by a large number of successful appeals by defense lawyers who seize on technicalities.
Research Results
Dr. Connolly's research shows that of all the criminal cases entering the legal system in Pennsylvania in an average year, only 1 percent are appealed. And of these appeals, only 15 percent are successful, in other words, even if the high courts were wrong every time they upheld an appeal in a criminal case, they still would be thwarting only one-sixth of 1 percent of all the criminal justice dispensed in the state.
Another belief-shattering discovery that Dr. Connolly made is that sentences of the courts in Philadelphia - far from being the extreme example of lenience that some suburban and rural critics say they are - are among the stiffest in the state.
Of all the sentences to state institutions made by courts in Pennsylvania, Dr. Connolly discovered, the average sentence is .6.9 years in prison.
Weakness Found
Philadelphia's sentences to state institutions average 11 years. Sentences in Bucks and Montgomery counties, she said, are slightly below average. Of her broader conclusions, Dr. Connolly said, "In general, the greatest weakness I found was the extent to which the political system penetrates the legal system."
She recommends that the courts be made financially self-sufficient though fines and fees, instead of having to continue relying on hand-outs from boards of commissioners. Dr Connolly said that during her seven-year struggle to win her PhD, she was forced to have her five sons be far more independent at home than they'd been before. And her husband, too. Connolly nodded in agreement, sighed and said. I learned a little bit of cooking. I had to."
The Connolly's agree that the extra independence has been good for their sons, who range in age from 12 to 22 years.
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