The historic failure to reform the majority of imprisoned women lies in part in society's failure to recognize that most incarcerated women have not had the socioeconomic opportunities that permit the fulfillment of the stereotyped image of women. Poor, uneducated, unskilled, marginally employed women, usually from immigrant and minority groups, have always been overrepresented in penal facilities. Rehabilitation programs for women and women correctional reformers have persisted in pressing female inmates into the mold of wife, mother, and homemaker economically supported by their husbands. Training programs have focused on cooking, sewing, and other homemaking functions as well as upon the typically female job functions of waitressing and typing. Until the 1960's, few voices were heard arguing the unrealistic theories underlying women's correctional programs. After the civil rights movement in the 1960's, minority women became more visible and active in the penal reform movement; however, they have not been able to overcome entrenched values and practices in women's corrections. Correctional values and practices continue to be reinforced by academic theories that perpetuate sex role stereotypes. By equating the wife/mother role with acceptable female behavior, the theories have conversely equated nonadherence to this role with crime, deviancy, and a threat to family and society. Twenty-three references are listed.