The brief focuses on women who have been arrested for a crime, convicted, and imprisoned. The choice to focus on prisoners was made because their type and degree of involvement in the criminal justice system, their options not only within the correctional system but also within society as a whole, are likely to be more severely limited than the options of women who come into contact with the correctional system as victims, as employees, or are arrested but are either not convicted or convicted but not imprisoned. The brief identifies existing and projected limits on the options available to women in society, emphasizes the ramifications of these limits imposed on women and to increase the harmony between societal and correctional change. Specifically, it is predicted that the majority of women will continue to be concentrated in subordinate, low-paying jobs, despite their participation in the labor force; that more women are likely to be poor and increasingly susceptible to job displacement while assuming responsibility for single-parent families in increasing numbers. Correctional policies need to increase training and employment opportunities and establish procedures that protect family ties. The bibliography contains 17 references. (Author abstract modified)