Educational Media Reviews Online

There are approximately six hundred women in The Iowa Correctional Institute for Women. Many of these women are incarcerated for life with little chance of ever getting parole. Many of the life sentences for these women began in their twenties and thirties. Seventy percent of them are mothers and sixty percent have been victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse. What does feminism mean to them?

Two students from the Grinnell College volunteer program taught a six week course on feminism to a small group of women prisoners who share their experiences and responses to the course topics in both group and individual interviews. They address questions of how the personal is political, domestic violence and childhood sexual abuse. Stephanie Covington, a clinician and author recognized for her work in the area of women’s issues, comments throughout. She states in one interview segment that the personal issues that the women prisoners discuss reflect all of the major social issues we struggle with in our society today. In another, she says that when talking to prison wardens they report that only about 20% of the women incarcerated in the maximum security facilities really need to be there. Though the stories of the women in the film are very personal the issues are also explored in societal terms.

Week one addresses what is feminism? Week two introduces how body image and sexuality determine how women feel about themselves and how women in the sex industry interpret their sexuality as power. Women illustrate this issue with stories of weight and body image related to drug use and another about having been an exotic dancer. Since sixty percent of the incarcerated women are mothers week three explores the issues of parental rights, foster care, giving birth while in prison, visitation with children and compares the prison system in the US with other countries.

The concept of privilege is introduced in the fourth week and the discussion turns to the privileges these women have known while incarcerated compared to the lack of privilege as young people or as poor women on the outside. For many women, according to one prison official, prison is the first stable and safe environment many of the women have ever known. Week five follows with a discussion on domestic violence and sexual abuse with candid histories told by women who have known little else. Statistics identify sixty percent of the inmates suffer from PTSD with very little in the way of victim assistance or mental health services available.

The final class focuses on the impact of feminism on individuals and on the culture. The inmates talk about feeling empowered and enlightened and the desire to be strong for their daughters. Two years later many of the women in the group are interviewed again. Some are out of prison and in school struggling with parenting and work release. While others were released, reoffended and returned to prison. Still others have applied for having their sentences commuted without success.

This documentary defines feminism and then illustrates how feminist issues are both personal and political, regardless of gender, and societal issues. This film would be useful in criminal justice, feminist, social justice, and other related courses and a worthy addition to high school and higher education libraries.