Working Together? Gendered Barriers to Employment and Desistance From Harm Amongst Criminalised English Women

Drawing on narrative interviews with 16 criminalized women and a year of observation at English Women’s Centers, this study explores the women’s qualitative experiences of employment and volunteering. Findings indicate traditional perspectives on desistance from crime ignore the intersectional disadvantages women face. Criminalized women experience trauma and stigma that have long-lasting effects on their mental health. Women present as desisting from crime by taking on unpaid employment. This reinforces perspectives on desistance which disregard the many generative roles which women are often quietly involved in. This article contributes to emerging discourse around critical anti-carceral, intersectional feminist desistance (Hale, 2020).