Aging in the Past "d0e28253"

Incidence of Widowhood

Considerable change in age-specific incidence of widowhood has occurred over this century. The prevalence of widows among ever-married women at various ages in 1910, 1940, and 1970 is shown in figure 10.1. Widowhood during young adulthood was relatively uncommon in 1910. About 13 percent of ever-married women aged 35-39 had experienced the disruption of their first marriage, and 7 percent were classified as currently widowed. After age 45, the ratio of widowed to ever-married women grew rapidly. About one-fifth of ever-married women aged 50 in 1910 were widows, but more than half of those aged 65-69 were widows.

As mortality, rates declined over the twentieth century, the incidence of widowhood decreased at every age (fig. 10.1). For example, the proportion of widows among ever-married woman aged 35-39 declined by 50 percent between 1910 and 1940, and by 1970, only 2 percent were in this category. In each time period examined here, the incidence of widowhood rises with

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Fig. 10.1.
Ever-married white women in the northeastern United States
who were widows, by age: U.S. census, 1910, 1940, and 1970.

age. Increasingly over time, widowhood became associated with later life. In 1940, widowhood did not become the modal experience until around age 70, and by 1970, the tipping point was well past age 70.

A woman's life course position at the time she loses her husband clearly has important implications for her experience as a widow. To be a young widow is different from being an old widow, and being a widow with children is different from being a childless widow, young or old. These two life course variables—age and number of children at the time of becoming a widow—are available from census records, and analysis begins with these two factors. How did age and number of children affect the work experience and living arrangements of widows in different historical time periods? After exploring these issues in the census data, we integrate these patterns of working and living arrangements with the available qualitative data from the ethnographic materials.