Single women recreating family: An exploration of the role of the collective in empowering women.

Abstract

A study of single women; separated, divorced or deserted by their husbands, mostly mothers, belonging to the economically weaker sections of the society was conducted in states of North India. The women, under study, are members of non-government organisations working for rights of single women. The primary aim of this study is to analyse how women from the economically weaker sections of society rebuild their lives after their marriage breaks down, and to understand how they create new relations, and the meaning they assign to family. The focus is to understand the challenges faced by women post marital discord and whether being a part of the organisation empowers them through collective struggle. The data was collected using the methodologies of semi-structured interviews and informal conversations using their life narratives. Depending on the comfort of the respondents, their life stories are recorded or notes have been taken. The method of the narratives is used to encompass the stories of the individuals through their experiences. It was found that single women were forced into poverty as a direct consequence of their marital breakdown, and the women becoming „single‟. They seldom find support from the natal family, any kind of state support or an income they can depend upon.1 Having become a part of the organisation, these women seek to redress their rights collectively, and motivate other women in similar situations to join the social movement. Single women, not related by kinship, form a „sisterhood,‟ sharing a relationship of mutual interdependence and respect. Some single women have created women-centric families with fluid boundaries. The agency accorded to them through the strength of the collective, enables them to get rid of their stigmatised identities of „vulnerable‟ and from „broken homes‟ and empowers them to challenge patriarchal structures. The study concludes that „single women,‟ as a collective, are giving a new meaning to relationships and family, as they carve a new identity for themselves, which is not subsumed within the structure of a patriarchal family. Rethinking the family from the point of single women provides a new vantage point in the critical analysis of the family and opens possibilities of forging other family forms and relationships outside the mainstream, thus expanding the sociological theorisation of the family.