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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Late life widowhood, selfishness and new partnership choices
— a gendered perspective | | Author(s) | Kate Davidson |
| Journal title | Ageing and Society, vol 21, pt 3, May 2001 |
| Pages | pp 297-317 |
| Keywords | Widows ; Widowers ; Attitude ; Personal relationships ; Emotions. |
| Annotation | Little sociological attention has been paid to older people finding new partners in widowhood, nor how age, gender and the meaning of marriage influence choices about cross-gender relationships. This paper reports on in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 25 widows and 26 widowers aged 65+, widowed for at least two years and who had not remarried. Respondents were asked about current lifestyles and relationships, and whether they had considered remarriage. The words "selfish" and "freedom" were often used by the widows when describing their present existence, which was associated with not having to look after someone all the time. Few of the widowers mentioned selfishness; this was more likely to be associated with feelings of anger at the loss of their spouse. None of the men associated widowhood with a sense of freedom. The desire for having another partner is gender-specific. Widows are more likely to choose to remain without a partner for intrinsic factors: the reluctance to relinquish a new-found freedom. For widowers, extrinsic factors of older age and poor health are more salient issues in new partnership formation choices and constraints. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-011004003 A |
| Classmark | SP: SPA: DP: DS: DL |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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