Engendering Resistance: Agency and Power in Women's Prisons

Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Crimes & Criminals, Penology
Cover of the book Engendering Resistance: Agency and Power in Women's Prisons by Mary Bosworth, Taylor and Francis
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Author: Mary Bosworth ISBN: 9781351940214
Publisher: Taylor and Francis Publication: March 2, 2017
Imprint: Routledge Language: English
Author: Mary Bosworth
ISBN: 9781351940214
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Publication: March 2, 2017
Imprint: Routledge
Language: English

This book explores how power is negotiated in women’s prisons. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in three penal establishments in England, it analyses how women manage the restrictions of imprisonment and the manner in which they attempt to resist institutional control. It is proposed that power is negotiated on a private, individual level, as women often resist the institution simply by trying to maintain an image of control over their own lives. However, their image of themselves as active, reasoning agents is undermined by institutional regimes which encourage traditional, passive, feminine behaviour at the same time as they deny the women their identities and responsibilities as mothers, wives, girlfriends and sisters. Femininity is, therefore, both the form and the goal of women’s imprisonment. Yet paradoxically, femininity also offers the possibility of resistance, because women manage to rebel by appropriating and changing aspects of it.

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This book explores how power is negotiated in women’s prisons. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in three penal establishments in England, it analyses how women manage the restrictions of imprisonment and the manner in which they attempt to resist institutional control. It is proposed that power is negotiated on a private, individual level, as women often resist the institution simply by trying to maintain an image of control over their own lives. However, their image of themselves as active, reasoning agents is undermined by institutional regimes which encourage traditional, passive, feminine behaviour at the same time as they deny the women their identities and responsibilities as mothers, wives, girlfriends and sisters. Femininity is, therefore, both the form and the goal of women’s imprisonment. Yet paradoxically, femininity also offers the possibility of resistance, because women manage to rebel by appropriating and changing aspects of it.

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