Work experiences and employment attitudes of female prisoners in Japan: comparison with general women and implications for support

This study compared employment histories and work attitudes between 461 female prisoners (FP) and 589 women in the general population (GW) in Japan. FP exhibited shorter and less stable employment careers, more frequent job changes, and greater financial hardship than GW. Despite these disadvantages, FP reported stronger motivation to work, driven mainly by economic necessity. A cluster analysis identified four employment patterns: long-term stable workers, long-term job seekers, short-term workers, and young workers. FP were disproportionately concentrated in the more unstable employment clusters. These findings suggest that employment support for FP should move beyond uniform approaches and instead incorporate employment history-based clusters. Such gender-responsive and context-sensitive interventions may more effectively promote labor market reintegration among FP.