Resisting Oppressive Power Relations: Solidarity and Resistance from Canadian Federal Prisons Designated for Women

• In Event: PWG - Women in prison: Characteristics, experiences, and relationships

Abstract

Globally, since the year 2000, the female prison population has grown exponentially compared to the population of male prisoners, surging by 57% worldwide (World Prison Brief, 2025). In Canada, since the expansion of women’s imprisonment in the 1990s, the population of federally sentenced women has increased by 405%, with Indigenous women comprising almost 50% of this population (Office of the Correctional Investigator, 2024). According to some prison scholars, in the 21st century there has been “a decline in the importance and intensity of a shared value system of solidarity, mutual aid, and opposition to prison staff” in men’s prisons, with loyalty maintained primarily within friend groups and mutual aid occurring in mostly superficial, self-interested ways (Crewe, 2005, p.182). Conversely, research with criminalized women identifies the presence of social support networks based on an ethic of care, whereby prisoner solidarity serves as a form of emotional coping and resistance against systemic oppression (Fayter et al., 2021; Fayter & Kilty, 2023). Building on past feminist research into solidarity and resistance within women’s prisons, this study explored how informal networks of care and solidarity mitigates and resists the harmful impacts of incarceration while supporting community re-entry. In this paper, I examine how power dynamics within carceral institutions shape sociopolitical interactions within this environment. Based on my personal lived experience of incarceration, along with in-depth interviews with formerly incarcerated women and gender-diverse people across Canada, this paper argues that prisoner solidarity networks and acts of resistance serve as forms of power providing a counterbalance to unchecked carceral power. Solidarity and the creation of caring communities, particularly in supporting incarcerated women with the most needs, along with ‘everyday’ and exceptional acts of resistance are highlighted as fostering prisoner resilience. Solidarity and resistance enable incarcerated people’s survival and promotes strength-based re-entry, ultimately leading to safer communities.

Author

• Rachel Fayter, Carleton University