The four women’s decision to rob banks can be explained through strain theory, which examines how societal structures create varying pressure that causes individuals to be unable to achieve their societal valued goals through legal or legitimate ways. Strain theory identifies this in five ways of adaptation. These ways are Conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism, and rebellion. These ways are displayed in the movie through Frankie’s workplace discrimination, Stony’s sacrificing her body for her brother and then losing her brother wrongfully to the police, TT’s desperation to provide for her child as a mother, and Cleo’s rebellion against society’s norms and what they saw of her based off the appearance of being a strong black female, a criminal, and a gay female in which caused society to look at her in a certain way that is often negative. As strain theory explains, these structural inequalities caused them to block legitimate avenues for success, forcing them to resort to crime as a successful route.