The Financial Prioritization of Gender
December 03, 2025
People always talk about men in prison, but rarely about the women. Yet women are the fastest-growing population in U.S. prisons, with incarceration rates doubling those of men since 1980. Nearly 200,000 women are currently incarcerated—many for nonviolent offenses, and many are mothers, survivors of abuse, or living in poverty. Criminal justice reform is more approached as a men's issue since they make up about four-fifths of the incarcerated population in the US, but that still leaves about 200,000 women incarcerated and underserved.
The criminal justice system in the US is additionally built upon a foundation of racism, which has led to Black women being incarcerated 1.6 times the rate of white women, Latina women at 1.2 times the rate of white women and Native American girls being incarcerated at over 4 times the rate of white girls. These inequities - are almost always studied as how they affect men’s incarceration and women's experiences are continually overlooked in the system. Women face unique issues in prisons and receive treatment significantly worse than that of male prison populations.
Women in prisons face inadequate healthcare, as it was designed for men. In federal facilities, few doctors are trained in gynecology; thus, without this proper training they are unable to provide adequate reproductive women’s health care, and therefore, many women go undiagnosed for treatable problems. Along with this, between 6%-10% of the female inmate population is pregnant, so facing this healthcare issue is even more of a problem for pregnant women’s prenatal needs and care. Immediately after giving birth, many incarcerated women are separated from their newborns, leading to worse developmental outcomes for the child and increased risk of postpartum depression. These inequities are unacceptable, and adequate healthcare is a human right that all incarcerated women deserve.Â
Further, about 5,000 transgender individuals are incarcerated in state facilities across the US. Transgender women not only experience the issues above, but along with this face many other unique challenges in a criminal justice system that is not adequately built to serve them. In federal prisons, 99% of transgender women are housed in men’s facilities. This poses safety issues and healthcare inequalities for these women. To mitigate the safety concerns for these women, prisons tend to keep transgender women in long-term solitary confinement to separate them from the larger prison population. While prisons see this as beneficial to the individual’s safety, long-term solitary confinement is considered torture by the UN and poses severe mental health concerns for inmates who experience it. Among transgender individuals incarcerated in state facilities, over half were unable to receive the medication that supports their transition during their incarceration.
When the Equal Rights Amendment is fully recognized and implemented, it could help ensure women in the criminal justice system receive fair and equal treatment at every stage—from arrest and pretrial supervision to incarceration, parole, and probation. This amendment could provide a stronger legal foundation to challenge discriminatory policies and practices that disproportionately harm women, improving their safety, health care, and access to resources. Ultimately, the ERA could create lasting change by recognizing and protecting the rights of women both inside and outside of prison walls.
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