Edna Mahan served as superintendent of the New Jersey Reformatory for Women, Clinton Farms, between 1928 and 1968. Her career began in 1923 at the end of the Progressive era when women's suffrage was a key issue. She attended Berkeley between 1918 and 1922 where her awareness of feminist issues was heightened. After graduating from Berkeley, she focused on reform in two arenas: (1) compensation, opportunities, and support for women who worked in corrections; and (2) female correctional institutions and female offenders. Many of Mahan's concerns with compensation and opportunities for women in corrections were addressed with the 1972 extension of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title VII. She championed the importance of caring for inmate mothers and their babies and the need to develop occupational opportunities for women. She also focused on the provision of appropriate medical, psychiatric, and psychological services for women, as well as on education and vocational training, leisure programs, and religious activities. Mahan recognized that the oppression imposed inside institutions fostered dependency and did not allow inmate growth toward self- determination. Her biography traces the role of women in corrections between 1830 and 1970, the women's reformatory movement, and the founding and management of Clinton Farms. References and photographs