This chapter sets out the historical context for women’s trials in colonial Western Australia. Unlike some other colonies in Australia, Western Australia’s legal system, and its court system, was formed within the first few months of colonisation. It’s low population and low ration of women to men during the majority of the nineteenth century created a completely different set of conditions for examiningfemale criminality female criminality. The book uses a mixed-methods approach, combining statistical analysis with numerous case studies which are interpreted within an intersectional framework. It argues that although legal rules and institutions, such as co-accused status, representation and the use ofmercy mercy, affected the verdicts and sentencing of women’s trials, the outcome of those trials, and the experience of the defendant, were often mediated by gender. Women appearing in the upper courts of colonial Western Australia might increase their chances of lenient treatment by presenting a persona of “respectable” womanhood in the courtroom.