Women's History Commons^™

Influences Affecting The Treatment Of Women Prisoners In Toronto, 1880 To 1890, M. Jennifer Brown

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Treatment of women prisoners in the 1880’s was largely dependent on the general attitudes towards the importance of their roles in society. In late nineteenth century Toronto the expected roles of women of all classes were those of wife and mother within the home and, to a very limited extent, of worker within the community. The responses and behaviour of women, which naturally was dependent upon and reflective of the circumstances within which they existed, nonetheless influenced society’s conception of what types of female behaviour were considered criminal and with and for what women were charged and committed, namely, actions …