Pathways and penalties: Exploring experiences of agency among incarcerated women in South Africa

Abstract

Despite the documented rise in the population of incarcerated women over recent decades, female offenders only represent about 5% of the total global incarcerated population. South Africa is no different – female offenders total less than 3% of the country’s incarcerated population, a populace that was previously counted as one of the ten largest correctional systems in the world. This small representation of women in the correctional system leads to interpretations of their pathways to offending and experiences of incarceration to be the same as those of male offenders, delegitimising any role that gender may play in offending behaviour. By utilising a feminist pathways research approach, the narratives of 17 women incarcerated in the Johannesburg Female Correctional Centre are contextualised in this study, to reveal conduits to women’s incarceration that primarily involve victimisation and socially constructed gendered vulnerabilities that are interconnected with poverty and oppression. As seen through excerpts of their life history interviews, this confluence of factors, coupled with pathways of narrowing options, contribute to female offending. Ultimately the research allows for a holistic understanding of the unique choices and challenges incarcerated women in South Africa face, and the role agency and patriarchy has played in the pathways taken.

Human rights and the invisible nature of incarcerated women in post-apartheid South Africa: prison system progress in adopting the Bangkok Rules

“…The intersectionality of systemic gender inequality, poverty stratified along gender lines, trauma, gender based violence against women (GBVAW), mental health issues, and marginalisation, prior to incarceration continue to be reflective of their wider positionality in South African society (Haffejee et al, 2005;Community Law Centre, 2007;Artz et al, 2012;Steyn and Booyens, 2018;UNODC, 2019;ARASA, 2019). They have distinct gendered pathways into crime, often heavily underpinned by crimes of survival, with continued gender and race discrimination in prison (du Preez, 2006;Van Hout and Chimbga, 2020;Parry, 2020;Lauwereys, 2021).…”

“…The intersectionality of systemic gender inequality, poverty stratified along gender lines, trauma, gender based violence against women (GBVAW), mental health issues and marginalisation, prior to incarceration continue to be reflective of their wider positionality in South African society (Haffejee et al , 2005; Community Law Centre, 2007; Artz et al , 2012; Steyn and Booyens, 2018; UNODC, 2019; AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa (ARASA), 2019). They have distinct gendered pathways into crime, often heavily underpinned by crimes of survival, with continued gender and race discrimination in prison (du Preez, 2006; Van Hout and Chimbga, 2020; Parry, 2020; Lauwereys, 2021). Many academic critiques of the South African penal system and rights-based commentaries on prisoner human rights since 1994 either ignore women in their entirety, or simply refer to women in the sense of separation of sexes (Bukurura, 2002; de Vos, 2005; Muntingh, 2006).…”

The Motherhood Penalty—Understanding the Gendered Role of Motherhood in the Life Histories of Incarcerated South African Women

“…These findings are corroborated by South African research (Artz et al, 2012;Ackerman, 2014;Haffejee et al, 2005;Parry, 2020). A study conducted by Pretorius and Botha (2009) found that 91% of participants indicated that they had children.…”

Examining ideology and agency within intensive motherhood literature

“…To sum, considering women's actions and agency as Hays (1997) originally proposed may offer a different, richer perspective (Parry, 2021) than the one currently reflected in IM literature. Such a perspective can also help more accurately reflect women's lived experience in future research, policy formulation, counseling, and other social supports to cater more effectively toward their realities.…”