| Summary: | There are few existing studies about women’s prison life during the Ancien Regime. In this article we propose to explore the issue of women’s confinement through the study of the Aix-en-Provence Refuge and prostitution. The institution of the Refuge emerged toward the end of the Middle-Ages in order to imprison women who were considered a danger to themselves and to society. Although this “galley” for women was not a force house, it held the same characteristics. This was reinforced by the spiritual dimension since this institution was ruled by nuns. The women who were imprisoned in the Refuge included criminals, prostitutes, thieves, and dropouts, but also women who wished to live far from vice. These “volunteers”, who were confined both willingly and unwillingly, constituted within the Refuge a separate group from the other criminal women. For both groups, however, work and prayer alone were expected to bring these women and girls onto the right path. The entrance into the Refuge highlights the contradictions of a society confronted by disturbing aspects of femininity: confinement was a response to shield society from those who strayed from the social norm and the values of public order.
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