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Involving older women in the research process
- Author:
- CHAMBERS Pat
- Journal article citation:
- Generations Review, 8(4), December 1998, pp.6-8.
- Publisher:
- British Society of Gerontology
Explores the impact on a group of older women participating in the research process. The women were taking part in biographical interviews aiming to examine the experience of later life widowhood. The author goes on to compare her findings and initial observations with the current literature.
Older widows and the life course: multiple narratives of hidden lives
- Author:
- CHAMBERS Pat
- Publisher:
- Ashgate
- Publication year:
- 2005
- Pagination:
- 287p.,bibliog.
- Place of publication:
- Aldershot
Later-life widowhood is the expectation of most older wives, since statistically women live longer than men and tend to marry men older than themselves. Despite this there has been little coverage of the complexities of later-life widowhood. This research reveals a multi-faceted experience of later-life widowhood. Older widows’ life stories challenge the dominant public narrative of misery and decline, pointing instead to a complexity of experience which is rooted in personal biography and the female life course rather than in later-life widowhood itself. The author develops the concept of ‘multiple narratives’ as a way of uncovering the complex, but often hidden lives of older widows. Without such an understanding, she argues, it is all too easy to subscribe to the powerfully dominant public narrative and thus to misinterpret older widows’ current needs and aspirations.