This article discusses the incarceration of women in correctional facilities. As of 2013, across the world, 625,000 women and children were being held in penal institutions, and the female prison population was increasing in all continents. The list of countries by incarceration rate includes a main table with a column for the historical and current percentage of prisoners who are female. Prison population Globally, women form an underrepresented population within prison systems, as the vast majority of incarcerated people are men. Incarcerated women have been and continue to be treated differently by criminal justice systems around the world at every step of the process, from arrest to sentencing, to punitive measures used. This disparity is largely due to tangible demographic differences between the severity of crimes committed by male and female prison populations, as well as a persistent belief by society at large that female criminals are better able to be rehabilitated than their male counterparts. Although women form a minority in the global prison population, the population of incarcerated women is growing at a rate twice as fast as the male prison population. Those imprisoned in China, Russia, and the United States comprise the great majority of incarcerated people, including women, in the world. Trends observed in the global growth of the female prison population can be partly explained by evolving policies regarding the sentencing and parole of female inmates. As criminal justice systems across the world move towards gender-blind sentencing, this has resulted in a tremendous increase in the rate of female incarceration. Concurrent elimination of parole and toughening of penalties for parole violations in many areas of the world also contribute to high rates of re-entry and reoffending, further driving up rates of incarceration of women. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime website hosts data regarding prison populations around the world, including "Persons held - by sex, by age group" and "Persons held - by status and sex". Social and political conditions leading to incarceration International developments in the political response to social issues, specifically the global drug epidemic, have catalyzed many changes in the composition of the prison populations and, subsequently, the types of conditions prisoners experience while incarcerated. The War on Drugs has accounted for the large population of female low-level offenders, usually imprisoned for narcotic use or possession. Western powers, particularly the United States, have largely advocated for the global proliferation of