WOMEN OF A PROMISCUOUS NATURE
By: Donna Everhart
Published: January 27, 2026
Publisher: Kensington
Historical Fiction
Imagine you are a young woman, single, walking to work or coming home late from a movie with a friend, and a policeman stops you and orders you to get in the car, because he is required to “take you in for testing”. You have no one that you can ask for help, no one that can verify that this is true, so you go along because surely nothing is wrong with you. Then the test results show you have syphilis…even though you have never even kissed a man. So, you are now institutionalized and given shots similar to chemotherapy to rid your body of “disease”. You can’t inform your family, your employer, or your landlord where you are and are forced to stay in this facility for the foreseeable future.
“Good people in moments like that are braver than most.”
This was a common occurrence in 1941 due to the American Plan. If a woman was deemed to be promiscuous or her beliefs or expectations were out of the ordinary, like a single woman working or living alone, she was marked as posing a threat to society and even a national security threat, specifically to American servicemen. During WWI, many servicemen suffered from venereal diseases and were hospitalized due to not being treated. The disease affected their ability to serve, so to make sure this didn’t happen again, the government came up with the American Plan to keep suspicious women out of harm’s way. Of course, no punishment was allotted to the men who had the disease. It was given only to the women.
“If there are unhappy people, she’s ready to remind anyone who needs it, they’re not running a resort. Reform isn’t meant to be easy, for pity’s sake.”
If this idea horrifies you as it did me, you’ll find many more reasons to be shocked and angry while reading this book. In alternating chapters, we hear from Baker, the Superintendent of the State Industrial Farm Colony for Women. She has a secret past that she is protecting, both from her childhood and from her previous Farm Home that she managed. Next, we meet Stella, a 15-year-old girl who is sent to the home by her parents after a serious incident that will bring shame to their family. However, they aren’t telling the whole story. Finally, Ruth Foster is a woman like the one I described above. A young woman who works at a diner. Minds her own business. Raised in a good home, but was excited to start living on her own. She had met a few men in town, but nothing serious. Just dinner dates or going to the movies. Walking to the diner one morning, she is stopped, forced to get into the sheriff’s car, and taken to the State Industrial Farm Colony for Women.
“The inmates keep the place functioning, yet to balk means no parole. There’s only one way out and that’s to do what they’re told.”
I could rant for hours over the horrors that happened to the residents of State Industrial Farm Colony for Women. I actually had to put the book down a few times because it made me so angry to think these situations were based on real women in history….just 80 years ago. Their stories were heartbreaking. The employees were maddening, and as a former hospice care worker and social worker, I couldn’t believe their judgments and mistreatment of the women. Even though Mrs. Baker, the Superintendent, had a torrid past, I couldn’t find one ounce of empathy for her. She believed she was saving society and “doing the right thing” by teaching these women how to be proper and honorable.
“She’d been helpless, unable to save herself, trapped and forced to endure. She doesn’t like feeling that way. She wants to be stronger, speak without fear, stand up for herself. She wants to be brave, and independent.”
Everhart places the reader into the facility. I can imagine the scratchy brown dresses, the thinning and oily hair that gradually became normal for the women receiving treatment, the bland food, the stench of the meditation room, and the visceral fear and hatred the women had for the housemother. Not only was their treatment for supposed diseases, but if they found the women to be less desirable, they sterilized them, without their knowledge. These eugenics policies were common in Hitler’s WWII plan, but were also happening regularly in these types of facilities in the US.
Since this all took place before the creation of penicillin, many of the women were given shots of mercury and arsenic. Everhart states, “This is a story about women who were held against their will without due process, but it’s also a story about women who believed what they were doing was for the greater good.” This story has lots of opportunities for discussion and would make an excellent book club choice, especially for those who like stories about real women in history. The author also includes discussion questions at the back of the book. Celebrate Women’s History Month by reading this book.
Back in October 2023, our book club read and enjoyed THE SAINTS OF SWALLOW HILL by Everhart. If you like compelling stories based on real history, characters who must overcome challenges, and fascinating historical fiction, don’t miss her newest novel.
Don’t miss THIS BOOK CLUB KIT full of artifacts & recipes
Donna Everhart is a USA Today bestselling author known for vividly evoking the challenges of the heart and the complex heritage of the American South. A finalist for the Southern Book Prize, she is the recipient of the prestigious North Carolina Society of Historians Award of Excellence, the SELA Outstanding Southeastern Author Award from the Southeastern Library Association, the Lucy Bramlette Patterson Award from the General Federation of Women’s Clubs of North Carolina, and her novels have received a SIBA Okra Pick, an Indie Next Pick, and three Publishers Marketplace Buzz Books selections. Check out her website, HERE.
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Posted Under Book Review, Donna Everhart, Women's history, historical fiction