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Widowhood and Ageing in Traditional English Society

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 November 2008

James E. Smith
James E. Smith
Affiliation:
Professor of Sociology, Brigham Young University, Utah, USA. Contact address: CMIS Corporation, 8298B Old East House Row, Vienna, Va.
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Abstract

The persistence of greater life expectancy among women than men means that widowhood on a large scale is a feature of both pre-industrial and subsequent societies. This paper examines the changing structure of widowhood along with the familial and economic support afforded to women in this category, in the 17th and 18th centuries by contrast with the present day. It indicates, by drawing on parish data for England, that the incidence of the widowed status is today lower in each age group than two hundred years previously, but higher as a proportion of total population. Current widows are however twice as likely to be over 55 and to be heads of households. Further comparisons over time are used to make observations about the relative effectiveness of the parish, kin, and the Welfare State in providing material support.

Type
Research Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 4 , Issue 4 , December 1984 , pp. 429 - 449
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1984

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References

NOTES

1 Figures based on English life table 13, 1970–1972. Similar figures are obtained from most contemporary life tables for developed nations.

2 Wrigley, and Schofield, (1981) is a reconstruction of English demographic history from 1541 to 1871 and refers to most previous work in this field.Google Scholar

3 Based on the Coale, and Demeny, (1983) model life table West level 9Google Scholar. Wrigley, and Schofield, (1981) found the North mortality pattern more useful in their work, but the difference between West and North are not significant for the present purposes.Google Scholar

4 Population Trends, Office of Population Censuses and Surveys, London, number 33 (autumn 1983), table 8.

5 Remarriage interval and effect of marriage order on fertility. In Dupaquier, J. (ed.) Marriage and Remarriage in Population in the Past. London, 1981.Google Scholar

6 Laslett, Peter, The World we have lost. London, 1983.Google Scholar

7 This model was first outlined in Wachter, K. (ed.) Statistical Studies of Historical Social Structure, p. 81. New York, 1978.Google Scholar

8 Though compare Jean Robin's piece below, where some widows' households are observed between the 1850's and 1870's, if only at ten year intervals.