ABSTRACT
A review of the literature on later life tells us that widowhood is a women's issue. Although the age of widowhood varies greatly, it is primarily experienced by older women—this is because of gender differences in mortality and the social norm that women marry men older than themselves. The average age of widowhood varies according to class and race: the middle classes experience widowhood at an older age than the working classes; blacks experience widowhood at a younger age than whites (Markides, 1989, cited in Sara Arber and Jay Ginn, 1991). In Great Britain in 1995, 32% of women aged 65–74 were widows compared with 10% of men (OPCS, 1995). Widowhood therefore is the likely circumstance of older women and it becomes the norm as they move into old, old age. Among women who were over 75 years of age in Great Britain in 1995, the proportion of widows was 65% (OPCS, 1995), with an even greater proportion in the group who were over 85. Population projections suggest that the number of older people over 75 is likely to double by the middle of the twenty-first century (Age Concern, 1998). In subsequent cohorts, therefore, if current mortality rates continue, we are likely to see even more older widows.
