Prisons are profoundly gendered institutions, with a strong masculine ethos, and where gender is usually organised according to a male/female gender binary. We know that reality is much more complex, and this panel interrogates the ways in which prison staff experience and perform their gender within prisons in Australia, Canada and Scotland.

Paper Title: Wearing Masculinity? Exploring the vocational experiences of female prison staff in Norway and Australia.
Presenter: Anna Eriksson, Monash, Australia.
Abstract: Based on interviews with staff and prisoners across 14 prisons in Australia and Norway, and using the uniform as a lens, this paper considers how female prison staff experience their job, and how the constructions, expectations, and performances of gender in these different cultural, social, and political contexts might impact these experiences.

Paper Title: How are prison staff responding to gender diversity within prison settings?
Presenter: Matt Maycock, Monash, Australia.
Abstract: Emerging analysis suggests a lag between societal shifts in gender diversity, and the ways in which policy relating to gender diversity is developed and implemented within prison settings. This raises challenges for prison staff, who are increasingly working with people living a diversity of gendered lives. This presentation considers some of the emerging challenges in this area.

Paper Title: Federal Correctional s: Solidarity and Masculinities in the Correctional “Brotherhood”
Presenter: Rosemary Ricciardelli, Zachary Towns, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada.
Abstract: In-group prison acceptance exists within gendered spaces, constructed around dominating hegemonic masculinities. We unpack what constitutes prison solidarity, by analyzing 100s of interviews with prison s, regarding “brotherhood”. We explore how the brotherhood differs from other public safety personnel’s’ “brotherhood” and how exclusion from the brotherhood compounds the pains of employment.

In-group prison acceptance exists within gendered spaces, constructed around dominating hegemonic masculinities. We unpack what constitutes prison solidarity, by analyzing 100s of interviews with prison s, regarding “brotherhood”. We explore how the brotherhood differs from other public safety personnel’s’ “brotherhood” and how exclusion from the brotherhood compounds the pains of employment.

Based on interviews with staff and prisoners across 14 prisons in Australia and Norway, and using the uniform as a lens, this paper considers how female prison staff experience their job, and how the constructions, expectations, and performances of gender in these different cultural, social, and political contexts might impact these experiences.

Emerging analysis suggests a lag between societal shifts in gender diversity, and the ways in which policy relating to gender diversity is developed and implemented within prison settings. This raises challenges for prison staff, who are increasingly working with people living a diversity of gendered lives. This presentation considers some of the emerging challenges in this area.