In this article, the author suggests that criminological accounts of the bi
rth of the prison have been characterised by an unacknowledged chronologica
l and gender bias. Rather than being the result of a global transformation
in the ideology of punishment, as most authors have suggested with regard t
o men, the imprisonment of women was marked by significant continuities in
forms and ideologies of punishment from the early modern period. To show th
is continuity, the author analyses the history of women's imprisonment in H
opital de la Salpetriere in Paris from 1684 to 1916. Despite the radical ch
anges it underwent in different historical and political context, archival
documents from the institution reveal that women throughout this period wer
e brought to the prison on similar grounds and subjected to similar regimes
. This article suggests that placing gender at the centre of the criminolog
ical enterprise transforms understanding of the development and legitimacy
of imprisonment today and in the past.