This study focused on what is known and what is not known about women’s participation in prison education programming. It attempts to show how women who participate in prison education programming distinctively differ from women who do not participate, that far more is known about structural conditions that influence women’s participation in prison education than is known about an inmate’s own unique and personal motivations for participation, and how a number of relevant theoretical implications can be used to develop more effective methodologies to aid in answering the unanswered questions concerning women’s participation in prison education. The study first examined the literature on empirical studies of women’s prisons with specific attention given to how the structural conditions of women’s prisons and related policy changes could impact women’s participation in prison education. It then examined two trend studies on women’s participation in prison education from 1979 to 1997. Four specific ideas resulted and are presented in understanding women’s participation in educational programming: (1) future methodologies designed in examining inmate participation in educational programming should pay close attention to the degree of cultural capital held by any inmate; (2) distinguish between two forms of motivational characteristics; (3) examine an inmate’s integration into and social support received from the prison subculture; and (4) develop methodologies in a way that allows the identification of these individual characteristics that motivate participation. Tables, figures and references