Situation Of Widows Research Articles

Konkurrenz um Vermögen im südlichen Tirol des 16. Jahrhunderts

Summary This contribution assumes that in early modern European societies a large part of wealth was transferred through inheritance and marriage. Therefore it is necessary to analyse law and practice of inheritance systems and marital property regimes in view of their entanglement. Access, disposition and rights of use concerning real estate, money and moveable wealth resulted mostly from gender-specific logics. The situation of widows and their provision differed clearly depending on legal contexts. The initial hypothesis is that this situation was especially fragile if sons were the preferred principal heirs and separation of property prevailed – as was the case in the analysed areas of southern Tirol. Particularly prominent were the competing claims of the widowon the one hand and of the children and the husband’s relations on the other. It is the aim of this paper to shed light on the impact of different axes of competition based on a broadly conceived concept of wealth.

Contratos matrimoniales en régimen dotal, 1381-1491: una aproximación a la sociedad medieval de Valencia

This article presents research conducted on a group of 259 Valencian notarial documents covering part of the fourteenth century and almost all of the fifteenth. The documents examined are mostly marriage contracts in the dowry system, the predominant economic system in the medieval kingdom of Valencia, studied here from a social perspective, establishing relations between socio-professional levels, productive activities and marriage behaviours. The result is a series of sectorial observations of various aspects: the situation of widows, migration, social mobility and the role of households in nuptial strategies, issues that are redefined in the light of marriage contracts.

The Catch 22 situation of widows from polygamous marriages being discarded under customary law

abstract This article deals with the continued ‘discarding’ of a wife by the courts. The courts do so by declaring the marriage of a second or later wife in a dual (polygamous) marriage void in circumstances where the husband failed to adhere to the provisions (especially s 7(6)) of the Recognition of Customary Marriages Act 120 of 1998 when entering into the subsequent marriage while already married. This declaration of voidness usually occurs after the death of the husband, and has devastating legal and emotional consequences for the ‘discarded’ wife. This is especially heartbreaking as she herself and the community in which she lives regarded her as legally married. The scenario played itself out again in the case of MM v MN 2010 (4) SA 286 (GNP). This judgment is discussed from a historical perspective with reference to the above-mentioned Act as well as the legislation that preceded this Act. The success of the current statute in light of the objects thereof is discussed. It is concluded that interpretation by the courts of the current legislation has created a new type of discarded widow – and as such the Act and the courts have not succeeded in protecting the wives, as was intended by the legislation. Before the current Act, it was the customary wife that was discarded by the law in favour of the civil wife. Today, it is the subsequent wife that is discarded – irrespective of the nature of the marriage – as the first marriage takes preference over any other marriages. There is thus still a discarded wife – all because of the inaction of a husband who ignored the existing legislative provisions.

Rural widows, economy and co-residence in the 18th and 19th centuries

Widows in the past have often been viewed either as poor and lonely or living under the control of their family members. The aim of this article is to show that the situation of widows in the 18th and 19th century Nordic countries does not necessarily correspond with these images. Law and custom provided landholding women with a certain amount of economic security in widowhood, and it seems to be relatively clear that women knew how to make use of their position. However, the frequency of co-habitation between mothers and children also indicates the creation and maintaining of mutually supportive strategies. The increasing stratification of 19th century society did on the other hand inflate the group of widows without property. As a result of running a household without a production element these widows had a greater need to launch their children into the labour market and therefore found themselves in greater need of assistance from the community in old age.

Nordic retirement contracts and the economic situation of widows

The aim of this article is to explore the economic status and the quality of life of widows in the Nordic past, based on the evidence contained in retirement contracts. Analysis of these contracts also shows the ways in which, and when, land and the authority invested in the headship of the household were transferred between generations in the Nordic countryside. After the early eighteenth century, retirement contracts became more detailed but these should be viewed not as a sign of tension between the retirees and their successors but as a family insurance strategy designed to protect the interests of younger siblings of the heir and his or her old parents, particularly if there was a danger of the property being acquired by a non-relative. Both the retirement contracts made by couples and those made by a widow alone generally guaranteed them an adequate standard of living in retirement. Widows were assured of an adequately heated room of their own, more generous provision of food than was available to many families, clothing and the right to continue to work, for example at spinning and milking, but to be excused heavy labour. However, when the land was to be retained by the family, in many cases there was no intention of establishing a separate household.

Does marital status matter? Support, personal autonomy and economic power among Abaluyia widows in Kenya

This article considers issues of personal and economic power among African women in regard to their marital situation. Since marriage is usually crucial to young African women's gaining access to resources, in later life does marital status matter? Are widows worse off than wives, as is the situation of widows in much of the world? A brief description of widowhood worldwide is followed by material from research among older Abaluyia women in Kenya, among whom widowhood offers advantages which today are leading some Abaluyia women to choose widowhood over remarriage. Finally, the discussion is broadened to a consideration of widows in other sub-Saharan African countries. While some African women's situation becomes precarious with the loss of a husband, others prefer not to be married, for a variety of reasons relating to personal autonomy and control of resources and also because in general security in old age depends more on other kin, especially sons, than on husbands. Thus it seems that while marital status matters among older African women, the status preferred may be that of widow (or in some places retired wife), when widowhood results in the empowerment of the widow and does not threaten her personal security.

Comment on Ferber's "Women and Work: Issues of the 1980s"

significant, I think, that Christine addressed herself to both the politics and the psychology of female literacy: to the controllers of her culture, she argued the case for women's education; for her sisters, however, she illuminated the psychological dynamics women might expect to experience as they advanced onto the male terrain of letters. I have focused here on the conflict between authority and experience that Christine recognized and resolved because I think it is a conflict we still know, even if female literacy itself is no longer rare. Its resolution is also the wellspring from which many other aspects of Christine's feminist theory flow, including her analysis of violence against women, rape, and the situation of widows, as well as her methodology of reading herself into in order to reread the authoritative texts of her day. At the same time, Christine's feminism requires a deliberate refusal to resolve apparently contradictory attitudes and values; she wrote both a treatise praising peace and, as her last work, a lyric celebrating Joan of Arc's martial valor. This willingness to tolerate apparent contradictions remains, I think, one of the strengths of feminist theory-another reason Christine de Pisan and her colleagues, whom I have not been able to discuss here, deserve our attention. Joan Kelly's Early Feminist Theory opens up this new chapter in our history and shows us how to being rereading it.