Gendered strategies for coping with widowhood : a life-course perspective
Date
1994
Authors
Vido, Eva
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Abstract
Elderly widowed men and women must deal with various personal, social, cultural and situational difficulties associated with the life-course stage of widowhood. The experience of widowhood in old age is often very traumatic, requiring the widowed individual to respond with a set of different coping strategies to readjust to the new demands of life as a single person after many years of coupled coexistence. While it cannot be successfully argued for whom, men or women, widowhood is more difficult, I propose that the nature of difficulties, at least in some aspects, differs according to gender.
Emerging from my study is the general finding that elderly men differ from elderly women in their life-course experiences, not least of all childhood, education, marriage, parenting, employment, and friendships. The gendered experience of these life-course events leads to differences in coping with widowhood and its accompanying stress. The dimensions of the gendered difference and the links between life-course experience and that of widowhood are explored through in-depth interviews with six widows and six widowers. The findings are discussed in relation to such themes as social and cultural elements in Canada, role of religion in widowhood, marital experience and its effect on widowhood, and, ultimately, loneliness.