Prisons as Gendered Organizations

• In Event: Roundtable: (Re)Theorizing "The Prison" as an Institution

Abstract

Scholars of women’s prisons have long analyzed the gendered logics and gendered experiences of incarceration. By contrast, men’s prison experiences are often presumed standard, considered as the “gender neutral” default from which women’s experiences deviate. In reality, however, all prisons are gendered organizations (Britton, 2003). As sex-segregated spaces predicated on punishment, prisons operate with gendered logics, stereotypes, and norms. Furthermore, the experiences of transgender and gender nonconforming people in prison speak volumes about the gendered nature of imprisonment. In this article, we identify how both men’s and women’s prisons are gendered organizations in structural, interactional, and discursive ways. We conclude with a discussion of why it is vital that scholars analyze prisons in light of their gendered features.

Authors

• Rachel Ellis, University of Maryland

• Amara Bailey, University of Maryland