It is axiomatic in the literature that parenthood exacerbates the pains of imprisonment for women; a corollary is that it has a lesser impact on incarcerated men. To test these assumptions, this study obtained data from the National Jail Surveys conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau for the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Surveys were conducted in 1972, 1978, 1983, and 1989. This study used the two most recent surveys (1983 and 1989) for its samples of inmate parents. The 1983 survey included 3,706 males and 1,783 females. Of these, 2,002 men (54 percent) and 1,226 women (68.8 percent) were parents. The 1989 survey included 4,036 males and 1,629 females, of whom 2,390 were fathers (59.2 percent) and 1,189 were mothers (73 percent). The study focused on jailed parents with minor children. Jailed mothers were more likely than jailed fathers to have minor children and to have been living with their minor children at the time of their arrest. Their children were more likely to have experienced a change in caretaking because of their arrest than were the children of jailed fathers. Thus, incarceration does in fact pose greater problems for mothers than for fathers. 7 tables and 33 references