Information was collected from April 1995 to February 1996 in institutions that varied significantly in their security levels and inmate population. The analysis focused on the ways by which women negotiate restrictions of imprisonment and the manner in which they try to resist institutional control. Findings suggested that power is negotiated on a private, internalized level, as women often resist the institution simply by trying to maintain an image of control over their own lives. However, this image of themselves as active, reasoning agents is undermined by institutional constraints that encourage them to exhibit traditional, passive, feminine behavior at the same time as they deny them their identities as mothers, wives, female partners, and sisters. Findings also suggested that women's modes of resistance indicate that imprisonment is contested and embattled in ways that reflect broader social norms of behavior and identity and thus that the legitimacy of imprisonment depends at least partly upon gender. Notes and 73 references (Author abstract modified)