I had heard this, but the source was a bit sketchy. What was the reality to crime & punishment for women in Victorian Britain? Was it more common for a woman to be sentenced to transportation?
I don't have my full books with me where I am at the moment, but I do know that more women who were sentenced to death had their sentences commuted to transportation that men. This was relatively common too, as despite there being literally dozens and dozens of crimes deemed worthy of capital punishment and hundreds of people were sentenced to death, a far small percentage had their sentence actually happen.
I hunt through my books for more though.
Hobsbawm, E. Captain Swing, London, 1968