My reading recommendation for Women’s History Month is WOMEN OF A PROMISCUOUS NATURE. Donna Everhart’s novels about the hardscrabble lives of southern women are compelling reads and this is my favorite.

Set in the 1940s in the State Industrial Farm Colony for Women in Kinston, North Carolina, the story exposes a government health program called the American Plan. Enacted in 1918 and active into the 1950s, it aimed to combat the high level of STDs amongst American soldiers by regulating women’s sexuality and bodies in detention camps. If they could be reformed, they would be released on parole. Yes, that is terrifying and true.

Despite the dark subject matter, this is a page-turner. I was fully invested in the lives of the women in the colony, especially the three point-of-view characters.

Baker is the superintendent who believes in the importance of rehabilitating these women. Unbelievably cruel punishment happens on her watch, but thanks to the genius of Everhart, you understand Baker’s motivations and her mission. At times, I felt sorry for her, which was mind-blowing.

Stella is fifteen and was sent to the colony by her parents for being pregnant. (She was raped repeatedly by her father.) She barely understands what’s happening but feels safe for the first time, especially after her ‘tumor’ is removed. Baker takes a special interest in her, and Stella wants to earn that label of being reformed!

Ruth is an independent young woman walking to work when the sheriff stops her. Her crime? Walking while beautiful. Literally. Ruth has only kissed one man, but the sheriff has, to use modern terminology, profiled her.

She’s subjected to a humiliating and painful exam by a doctor who declares she has syphilis. The sheriff then drives her to the colony, and when she tries to escape, brings her back in handcuffs. She’s subjected to 8 days of ‘meditation’. In other words, solitary confinement in a dank, windowless cell with a bucket, soiled bedding, and meagre food rations. Then she’s given painful injections of mercury to ‘cure her’. And that’s only the beginning because even though Ruth wants to keep her head down and get out, she refuses to comply with an order that she finds amoral.

Stories of other women are woven in, revealing sisterhood and resilience in the midst of brutality. My favorite part of the novel? The random acts of kindness and humanity that came from unexpected quarters.

This is a dark period of history that needs to be remembered and not repeated. If you have the chance to hear Donna speak about her research—take it.