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Elderly women, especially widows, were a prominent part of early modern rural society. While the stereotype of the poor widow has some resonance in Galicia, most widows had already served as de facto heads of households during their husbands' absences and were well prepared for the challenges of managing the family estate and raising children on their own. As women aged, they played a critical role not only in determining their own elder care, but intergenerational relationships and family economies as well. An examination of retirement contracts indicates that peasant women used their familial authority and wealth to ensure that they and their families would be properly cared for as they aged.

This chapter discusses the plight and sorrow of the Victorian and Edwardian women in the face of their husband's death. In the 19th century, the mortality rates were high producing high rates of widowed people particularly women because of the mortality differential favouring women and the higher rates of remarriage for widowed men. Widowhood in the early Victorian times was often seen as an end of marriage, a devastating experience on women whose central role was to be a dutiful wife and guardian of the family. The status of widows in the Victorian period was greater than that of a spinster but less than that of a wife. The chapter also discusses the stages of grief, bereavement and the emotional trauma in the lives of widowed women, as well as the symptoms and behavioural characteristics of grief seen in the middle and upper classes in the 19th and the 20th century. The chapter also tackles the different consolations of widowhood found within the comfort of religious family and memory. A case study on the peculiar widowhood of Lady Holland is also included in this chapter.

This chapter investigates the economic position of widows in the pre-industrial German society under analysis in this book. Patterns of widows' work are distilled from a database of work observations extracted from church-court records and are compared with those of other females (and males). These findings are then set alongside information on widows' livelihoods from an 18th-century economic census. Data on widowed female household-headship are used to identify the variables encouraging widows' economic independence. Qualitative findings are then used to explore competing hypotheses about the biological, technological, cultural and institutional determinants of widows' economic position. The chapter discusses the institutional factors constraining widows' economic activities, in particular the ‘social capital’ of craft guilds, merchant guilds, and local communities. The chapter concludes by exploring the implications for the wider developing economy of these constraints on widows' work.

This chapter discusses widowhood, remarriage, and old age in early modern London. It uses quantitative data to demonstrate that London widows remarried rapidly. City law treated widows relatively favorably in terms of inheritance, and remarriage – with the accompanying horizontal wealth transfers – was an accepted part of London’s commercial culture. Only elderly widows were unlikely to remarry. Remarrying widows demonstrated a preference for younger, bachelor bridegrooms, perhaps because they hoped to obtain the benefits of marriage without the disadvantages of subjection by marrying poorer men. These marriages were risky, however, as poor bridegrooms might attempt to assert household mastery. This chapter also argues that widows who remained single and independent posed no threat to patriarchal order, and discusses their survival strategies. It concludes by examining the stresses of old age and physical decline.

This chapter examines what Amartya Sen has written and argued about gender injustice in three seemingly distinct, but related contexts in South Asia: famine, widowhood, and paid work. The chapter is divided into four parts: one part for each issue and a conclusion linking all three. In parts 1-3, the chapter summarizes what Sen has written about each issue and then, based on research, highlighting certain factors that serve to illuminate or complicate the issue. In the conclusion, the chapter reflects on Sen's entitlement and capability theories and the normative concepts that they offer to those who seek gender justice in South Asia.

This chapter is an in-depth examination of the women whose lives did not fit neatly into the categories of ‘married’ or ‘single’. Instances of widowhood, divorce, separation, broken engagement, as well as ill health of husbands, had to be legislated for within the strict confines of the marriage bar. Using personal testimony as a means to illustrate the complexities of these situations, this chapter traces the gradual and piecemeal evolution of a policy, with particular reference to the Post Office (the Civil Service department which employed the largest number of women) and the LCC. As a whole, the chapter reveals the very real impact that the marriage bar could have on women in difficult circumstances and how highly gendered the practice was.

In his book The Social Construction of What?, Ian Hacking offers a schema for understanding different social constructionist claims along with a framework for distinguishing kinds or degrees of constructionist projects. Hacking's efforts are useful, but his account leaves many of the philosophical aspects of social construction projects obscure, as are the connections, if any, with more mainstream analytic philosophy projects. This chapter aims to argue that although Hacking's approach to social construction is apt for some of those working on such projects, it does not adequately capture what's at issue for an important range of social constructionists, particularly many of us working on gender and race. Moreover, a different way of understanding social construction reveals interesting connections and conflicts with mainstream analytic projects.

Chapter 6 reconstructs Susan Nye Hutchison's transformation from nearly destitute widow in New York to successful academy founder in North Carolina. Her journals reveal the relatively unknown business world of the female educational entrepreneur. From 1834 to 1845, higher education for females expanded, and more women began to move up a career ladder in venture schools and academies, progressing from teaching assistant, to teacher, to department head, to school principal. Susan's career reflects this broader social development in antebellum women's work. After visiting Emma Willard's Troy Female Seminary in New York to improve her credentials, she returned to North Carolina. To achieve success as a school founder, she developed networks of community support, implemented a rigorous curriculum, sought out endowment funds, and became involved in state politics. Gradually, she brought her two oldest sons to North Carolina and enrolled them in a Presbyterian male academy.

This chapter examines A Group of Noble Dames, a collection of stories that mostly feature cross-class relationships or marriages. It shows several ‘noble dames’ who marry men from lower classes, as well as the complications that arise over whom they have married. This can serve as an introduction to some of the confusions and detailed circumstances that appear to exercise every change of adultery, marriage, and widowhood. The chapter presents the different phases of womanhood and the performative language of the marriage vow. It notes Hardy's use of strained and complicated events that put pressure on the marriage contract, pushing it to the point of breakage or exhaustion. The chapter also considers illegitimacy, secrets of women, and how pain in these stories is expressed through dialogue.

The Dutch colony of New Netherlands differed in significant manners from the English colonies in North America. In New Netherlands, women had significant culture entitlements and legal rights and privileges from girlhood, through marriage, and into widowhood. As Kim Todt describes, these rights empowered women to act independently allowing women to contribute both to the colony’s economy and to their families.

No work on marriage in Rajasthan would be complete without reference to the practice of Sati and widowhood as Rajasthan still has the dubious distinction of having cases of Sati or bride burning. It is attempted to understand the phenomena of Sati and Jauhar in their historical context as well as the taboo on widow remarriages as these are seen as institutional forms of women’s oppression. What did the term Sati denote; how the practice of Sati in Rajasthan was different from other regions; which castes practiced Sati; whether it was voluntary or obligatory; did it adhere to the ideals of Sati Savitri, that is, the virtuous woman; all these questions have been taken up. The actual political, economic, social, religious factors responsible for this rite have been examined. The extent to which widow remarriage was prevalent among various castes and the property rights exercised by the widows, a crucial aspects determining their position has also been looked into.

Chapter 5 discusses Margaret Carroll’s life in widowhood. Government documents of postcolonial Maryland, in particular, tracked the enslaved population’s family relationships, life cycles, skill expertise, and other identifying characteristics of one of the largest enslaved populations in Baltimore County. As a result, details emerged from the post-Revolutionary era at Mount Clare between 1783 and 1817 about the enslaved population within the contexts of white widowhood and Baltimorean trends in African American life. This chapter examines generations of enslaved people living at Mount Clare and the influences facing Margaret as she considered freeing them.

This chapter describes a dynasty with the largest number of Hasidim in America in which conflict has been the dominant element of its succession from the first to the current rebbe. It shows how conflict has helped the group energize itself and how even a rebbe’s wife became a contender for the role of leader.

This chapter tracks D’Ewes’s work as an MP from the early months of the Long Parliament when hope remained high for a settlement with the king until the summer of 1642 when it had become obvious that civil war might be around the corner. D’Ewes suffered a devastating loss when in July 1641 his wife Anne died of smallpox, and his letters displayed the depth of his grief powerfully. Fully aware of the nearness of civil war because of, in his view, the extremism in London and in the king’s headquarters in Oxford, he sought in his speeches to keep the door to compromise open. But those he called “the fiery spirits” prevailed, and his enemies in the Commons subjected him to a painful humiliation on July 23, 1642 that led to his (temporary) withdrawal from political activity.

This chapter critiques Western feminist narratives of gender and Third World women's reproduction. Partial life table estimates by gender provide a window into gender disparities in Bedouin infant and child mortality. Ethnographic observations provide further insight into Bedouin gender relations, the gender configuration and size of the Bedouin family, and the meaning of children. The chapter concludes by looking more closely at Bedouin women's desire for large families and the observed variation in women's completed family sizes. Evidence shows smaller completed family sizes among Bedouin first wives in polygynous marriages and widows.

Even if for the gentry and nobility the double-standard was less restrictive of male conduct than, for example, Capp has argued, there is no question that contemporary expectations constrained the behaviour of females among the elite more severely than men. Still, this chapter explores the evidence for the extent and implications of illegitimate relationships conducted by elite females, and shows that they were far from uncommon and did not in every case lead to the most severe sanctions. It considers how the participants in such illegitimate relationships were described, and the gendered concepts implicit within those descriptions. As with that relating to the male gentry, the evidence here suggests that gentlewomen tended to become involved with men who, while some may have been servants, were themselves of relatively high status. Some of the more prominent women in this situation are considered, such as Elizabeth Parr, marchioness of Northampton, or Lady Florence Clifford, husband of Henry, 10th Lord Clifford, as are lesser known gentlewomen. The chapter considers how attitudes to these relationships, whether condemnatory, regulatory or less critical, changed over time.