Nineteenth-century women’s reformatories trained inmates in domesticity as proper femininity.

Evidence

Ttoenty-one years after the first English reformatory for women was established in London in 1853, the first U.S. reformatory for women was opened in Indiana. The aim was to train the prisoners in the “important” female role of domesticity* Thus an important role of the reform movement in women’s prisons was to encourage and ingrain “appropriate” gender roles, such as vocational training in cooking, sewing and cleaning. To accommodate these goals, the reformatory cottages were usually designed with kitchens, living rooms, and even some nurseries for prisoners with infants. — Davis, Angela Y, Are Prisons Obsolete, 190

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies the history of feminist prison reform as a project of gender-role enforcement, in contrast to today’s ‘separate but equal’ feminism.
• XREF: connects to: Women’s prison rehabilitation trained domestics for poor women and wives for the wealthy.

Broader Connections

• Women’s prison rehabilitation trained domestics for poor women and wives for the wealthy. #expands (0.75)