Search results

The purpose of this paper is to examine how and with what reasons, divorced women respond to harassment they face at work, within a patriarchal culture of stigma and prejudice about divorced women. This inquiry will be performed by integrating stigma-management and identity-management research with research on responding to and coping with harassment.

Using qualitative research methodology, semi-structured, in-depth interviews were carried out with 12 divorced working women.

Findings of the study illuminate the manner in which stigma management interacts with harassment coping/respond mechanisms in dynamic ways, leading to complex response strategies for divorced women, which can be broadly identified as stigma-focused response strategies and harassment-focused response strategies. A strategy typology – consisting of seven major quadrants and nine major strategies therein – is thus provided, explaining how divorced women struggle to maintain their identity and manage stigma while coping with harassment.

The paper point towards the need for organisations to be mindful of the struggles of stigmatised individuals in coping and responding to harassment, and their distinct situations and experiences in developing and implementing interventions such as training, awareness creation and policies on harassment.

While research on reaction to harassment is abundant, how divorced women – as a stigmatised and marginalised group of individuals in society – cope with harassment at work is almost non-existent. The present study fills this gap by exploring harassment responses at the nexus of stigma and identity management.

Purpose – This chapter examines change over time in income, human capital, and socio-demographic attributes for married, divorced, and never-married mothers

Methodology/approach – The chapter consists of descriptive analysis of data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth's 1979 cohort. Respondents were followed from 1979 to 2006.

Findings – The economic consequences of single motherhood are persistent. Women who have once been divorced or never-married mothers remain poorer through middle age, no matter how their family structure subsequently changes.

Social implications – A critical feature of the modern economic and demographic landscape is the intersection of individual and family characteristics. Many divorced and, especially, never-married mothers experience profound disadvantage even before they become mothers. Single mothers in general are far less likely to have college degrees, and, in the case of never-married mothers less likely to even have a high school diploma. Never-married mothers are also much less likely to be employed. Single mothers have less educated parents, and are themselves more likely to come from nonintact families. All of these disadvantages contribute to the economic costs – and the economic stress – of single motherhood.

Originality/value of paper – The chapter demonstrates that single mothers comprise two very different populations, divorced and never-married mothers. However, both are at a substantial disadvantage compared to married mothers.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the processes associated with divorced female employees' experiences at workplaces in the context of a developing country, Pakistan. Specifically, this study analyzes divorced women's narratives to better understand the nature of discrimination, its outcomes and their coping strategies within the workplace environment.

A qualitative methodology consisting of 25 semistructured interviews with women employees having divorce status was adopted.

Findings demonstrate that divorced women experience a considerable amount of discrimination at their workplace from colleagues (victimized through gossiping). Moreover, they are also offered less training opportunities. This discrimination not only increases turnover intentions and stress but also decreases cognitive performance and disturbs work–life balance. The major coping strategies identified in the research include avoiding the situation and/or concealing their identity.

First, this study undertakes an in-depth examination of experiences and consequences of stigma amongst female individuals with divorced identity from an understudied, yet highly relevant, context of Pakistan. In so doing, the authors respond to the call for more research that examines the role of context in shaping the psychological process. Second, contextualizing the concepts of discrimination and inclusion in the workplace setting, this work gives voice to females with divorce identity. Lastly, by examining the interaction between visible and invisible identities, the authors provide further evidence that individuals with multiple subordinate identities are more prone to greater stigma and other negative consequences.

Purpose: The present study examines how relationship status and gender are associated with social network experiences among older adults. Two relationship status groupings were examined: comparisons of (1) marrieds, divorced, and widowed individuals and (2) never marrieds, cohabiters, and daters.

Methodology: Data from the second wave of the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP), a nationally representative dataset, was used. Of the final sample of respondents, 10.3% identified as Black, 6.8% identified as Hispanic, 52.9% identified as female, and the mean age of respondents was 72.54 (SD = 7.52). Linear mixed models were conducted.

Results: Overall, men reported talking less and received less family and friend support than women. For only those who were divorced, widowed, or married, men were less close with their social networks and had less friend support than women. Widows were closer to their social networks than married and divorced individuals. Among women, divorced women were less close to their social network than married or widowed women. Those who were married talked less to their social networks than those who were divorced or widowed and cohabiters talked less than daters. Widows reported receiving greater family support than those who were married. Cohabiters had lower neighborhood social ties than those who were dating. Several significant interaction effects between gender and relationship status also occurred.

Value: The present study found that both gender and relationship status plays a role in how social network experiences and lends some support to marriage and cohabitation serving as “greedy” institutions.

This study aims to review the psychosocial determinants of divorce and their effects on women for a social reform in Pakistan. Enigmatic societal standards vandalize social status of divorced women and stress them to experience psychological trauma that triggers psychosocial disorders.

The study is categorized into three major determinants: the human emotional, the formal legal and societal aspect(s) in association with the deferential social status of divorced women. Rapid evidence assessment methodology was used to search the all-inclusive literature, collate the available descriptive evidences, critically analyze and evaluate it, sieve out studies of penurious quality and provide an aperçu of the evidence.

The research evinces domestic violence and abuse as an endemic cause of divorce in Pakistan; emotional and psychological consequences of domestic abuse damage women’s self-worth and well-being. Literature reported that all these determinants impacted the mental health stability of the divorced women. Divorce rates are climbing at a faster pace in the country and Punjab has been identified as a province of rocketing divorce rate. Lamentably, in various villages of other provinces, women risk face mutilation if they show courage to seek divorce.

More research needs to be carried out on the issue nationwide. Fundamentally, cultural norms around women’s roles in society need to be addressed and challenged where this research may become an impetus for further research.

The paper contributes towards the redressal of the domestic abuse, social exclusion, marginalization and vilification of divorced women in Pakistan. The rising rates indicate an urgent need for social reforms to curtail offending behaviors toward them, to safeguard their mental health and well-being and to empower them with their legal rights to enjoy deferential social status in life.

This chapter analyses the relationship between individuals’ poverty situation and conjugal status (divorced, separated, in a free union, or legally married) from 1996 to 2014. It describes different marriage property regimes that exist in state laws in Mexico. Couples living in free union are found to be poorer than those legally married, indicating that marriage may help to protect families more than cohabitation laws. When comparing divorced men and women, women show higher signs of being poorer than men; this could be because the law establishes that the assets in case of divorce accrue to whoever works and pays for them, and given that many women work in the unpaid sectors, men are the owners of the assets. Having no consideration of these facts in the law may create poverty with gender bias in the case of divorce. Additionally, there is lack of data in administrative records of marriage and divorce about couples’ assets, children, and employment status before and after the marriage, so we discuss the importance that in a near future this could be register to facilitate law and policy-makers identifying what contributes to create poverty with gender bias as a results of family laws, and correct them.

To investigate how parental divorce and gender might influence the likelihood of engaging in a friends with benefits relationship (FWBR), and the likelihood of binge drinking and unprotected sex practices.

Using self-report measures, 99 undergraduates shared their parental marital history, experiences with FWBRs, and health risk behaviors.

Men, as compared with women, reported significantly more FWBRs as did participants with divorced/separated parents, as compared with those with married parents. Participants who had engaged in an FWBR reported significantly more binge drinking than those with no prior FWBR experience; however, no differences were found for gender or parental marital status. No significant differences emerged regarding the prevalence of unprotected sex.

The current study employed the use of self-report surveys, which can be subject to social desirability. All participants were recruited from a single liberal arts college with a limited sample of men with divorced or separated parents.

Using mixed methods (qualitative and quantitative) to explore young adults’ predictors and outcomes of engaging in FWBRs provided unique insights into how gender and parental relationships influence both casual sex and health-related behaviors.

This paper aims to review major historical trends in US divorce rates and the origin of divorce law in the USA, as well as several of the leading explanations for the increased rates of divorce in the 20th century and the impact of these trends on remarriage rates.

Using a historical review, the paper discusses the origins of regional differences, the factors contributing to trends in divorce and remarriage, and the transition in persons pursuing divorce and remarriage throughout the history of the USA.

The paper notes how the advent of industrialization transformed the family and contributed to rising divorce rates and examines common explanations for the dramatic increase in divorce throughout the 20th century. In particular, this review highlights how the feminist movement along with numerous legislative and demographic changes brought about the increased labor force participation of women and female economic independence, which allowed both men and women greater freedom to divorce. As divorce has become a more common event, the number of people eligible for remarriage has increased and the majority of those entering second marriages have shifted from widows and widowers to divorcees.

Once scholars better understand the historical background for trends in divorce and remarriage, they can more readily recognize and address the implications for marriage in the present day.

Income in later life is an important factor in ensuring good health, quality of life, social engagement and subjective well‐being, yet it is now well known that women in later life are much poorer than men. In this article, data from the General Household Surveys 2001 and 2002 is used to show that this is largely the result of women's individual, and hidden, poverty within marriage. Dependency on men for income during the working life combines with the structure of the UK system to leave married men and married women with very unequal incomes after retirement. The median income of married and cohabiting women was only £53 per week, compared with men's £172; only 27% of married women had any private pension provision at all, compared with 75% of married men. Even among this 27% of women, half receive less than £35 a week from their pensions. Apart from the implications of this for potentially unequal access to money when cohabiting, the vast majority of women live alone for at least part of their retirement. When women become divorcees or widows, they cannot make up for lost income from their partners. Widows are thus relatively poor when compared with older women who have never married, but divorced women are on average the poorest of all. Social policies improving basic pension provision to all women in later life are urgently needed.

It is extremely likely that present trends towards mass divorce and remarriage will lead to some changes in the fertility behaviour of those affected. As remarriages come to represent an increasing proportion of all marriages, it is apparent that childbearing and childrearing practices are diversifying and that our conventional assumptions about parenthood and childhood are going to require fairly continuous revision. In the light of this it is useful to consider some of the more obvious connections between remarriage and fertility and to look at the sort of implications which these might have for relationships between parents and children. Does divorce reduce fertility? Does remarriage increase it? How might divorce and remarriage alter the duration and tempo of the childbearing years and what are the likely family arrangements which might ensue? Such questions raise a number of difficulties when looked at within the established categories of fertility research and I therefore hope to suggest some ways in which data of various kinds may be pieced together in order to provide a reasonably comprehensive picture of the problem.