ABSTRACT
There has been substantial investigation of the psychology of bereavement in the early period following loss of a spouse (Glick et al., 1974; Kubler-Ross, 1975; Parkes and Weiss, 1983; Shuchter and Zisook, 1993), but relatively little work has been done on gender differences in the meanings of widowhood in the longer term (Stevens, 1995). This article arises from a small qualitative study of twenty-five widows and twenty-six widowers in the United Kingdom. The respondents were born before 1930 (at least sixty-five years old at time of interview in 1995/6), widowed for a minimum of two years, lived alone in the community, and had not remarried. These criteria were established because the original purpose of the study was to investigate how differently older men and women realigned their lives in the medium and long term after widowhood. The study does not therefore examine the motivations of those widowed persons who have remarried, but did interview people who were in Living Apart Together (LAT) relationships.
