https://doi.org/10.1177/17488958221151112 Criminology & Criminal Justice 1–24 © The Author(s) 2023 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/17488958221151112 journals.sagepub.com/home/crj Gender equality and female incarceration: Evidence from global and regional analyses Doris C Chu National Chung Cheng University, Taiwan Bill Hebenton University of Manchester, UK Albert Toh University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, USA Abstract This article examines the nature of female 1 incarceration patterns globally and regionally in relation to societal gender equality using cross-national analysis of 138 countries. Importantly, our analysis uses a conceptually innovative gender-specific indicator (the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index) to determine relative levels of gender equality. Results of our study show that globally, countries with a narrower gender gap in economic participation made higher use of female incarceration, and this was also the case in the Asian and European regions. Countries with a narrower gap in political empowerment were found to have lower female incarceration rates globally and in the European region, but have higher female incarceration rates in the African region. Limitations are noted and suggestions for future studies are made. Keywords Female, gender equality, incarceration, liberation hypothesis, political empowerment Introduction One of the most striking penal developments of recent years has been the rise in women’s imprisonment, indeed outstripping any parallel increase in men’s imprisonment (McLaughlin and Shannon, 2022; Penal Reform International, 2021; Walmsley, 2018). Corresponding author: Bill Hebenton, Department of Criminology, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK. Email: Bill.Hebenton@manchester.ac.uk 1151112CRJ 0 0 10.1177/17488958221151112Criminology & Criminal JusticeChu et al. research-article 2023 Article