ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the development of the social role of wife and concentrates on the phasing-out stage caused by widowhood, a condition of life experienced by most women. The differences of involvement of husbands and wives in each other's lives by social class are reflected in the orientations women have toward their different social roles. The time of life when widows enter the phase-out stage in the role of wife has a great deal of influence upon what they experience because of that event and upon the roles they have to undertake or have available for re-engagement in a society which has so many alternative involvements. The aspect of widowhood which still remains relatively formalized and specific in role expectations is the funeral. They are the most likely of all the respondents to face strong disorganization in their lives with the death of the husband and to experience very personal forms of loneliness for him as a unique individual.
