What happens whene the husband dies depends on the society, on the location of the widow in urban-rural or class terms, and on the widow's own personal resources. In some societies the woman is totally dependent upon a grown son and cannot remarry; in others, such as that in the United States, she is more dependent upon her own resouces and wishes. For some, widowhood results in a great loss of status; for others, it can mean loneliness and social isolation. Yet widowhood can mean greater social freedom for some women, a "blooming of personality. Even grief is experienced in various ways and degrees. Thus there is no such thing as a "widow type," only a great heterogenity in widowhood, as in "wifehood." Volume I analyzes the support systems and life-styles of widows in Australia, the Philippines, Korea, Iran, China, a Pacific island, India, Turkey, and Israel. Volume II : North America examines two communities in Canada, a Florida retirement community, and communities in several other locations, as well as the relative situations of homeowners, blacks, and poor ethnic populations.

Circles and Settings: Role Changes of American Women is an original, comprehensive analysis of changing roles of American women at a time of great upheaval and public, as well as social science, commentary. Using a symbolic interactionist framework, with role seen as a set of negotiated relations, Lopata analyses the roles of wife, mother, kin member (daughter, sister, grandmother) homemaker, job holder in different settings, as well as friend, neighbor, volunteer, and activist. This book comprehensively pulls together all the major involvements of American women using both historical and comparative perspectives to show the evolution of these roles over the last century.

During the past three decades, feminist scholars have successfully demonstrated the ubiq uity and omnirelevance of gender as a sociocultural construction in virtually all human collectivities, past and present. Intrapsychic, interactional, and collective social processes are gendered, as are micro, meso, and macro social structures. Gender shapes, and is shaped, in all arenas of social life, from the most mundane practices of everyday life to those of the most powerful corporate actors. Contemporary understandings of gender emanate from a large community of primarily feminist scholars that spans the gamut of learned disciplines and also includes non-academic activist thinkers. However, while in corporating some cross-disciplinary material, this volume focuses specifically on socio logical theories and research concerning gender, which are discussed across the full array of social processes, structures, and institutions. As editor, I have explicitly tried to shape the contributions to this volume along several lines that reflect my long-standing views about sociology in general, and gender sociology in particular. First, I asked authors to include cross-national and historical material as much as possible. This request reflects my belief that understanding and evaluating the here-and-now and working realistically for a better future can only be accomplished from a comparative perspective. Too often, American sociology has been both tempero- and ethnocentric. Second, I have asked authors to be sensitive to within-gender differences along class, racial/ethnic, sexual preference, and age cohort lines.

To love and be loved is arguably one of the most powerful and fundamental driving forces sustaining self-esteem and self-identity throughout the life course. Need for reciprocal loving does not change as we grow older, despite failures of health, loss of a partner, late divorce, and alterations of personality due to the aging process. However, most studies of human sexuality have ignored the problems and developing patterns of older adults entering into new partnerships. To fill this gap, Intimacy in Later Life brings together a wide range of distinguished international scholars to address this neglected research area.

Older persons are often portrayed as social and financial burdens because pensions, health and social care have to withstand increasing old age dependency ratios. Due to a lack of access to representation or a lack of social and economic power, older people have found few opportunities to have their voices heard, making age an immensely political issue. Written by an impressive team of authors, this book provides an in-depth analysis of the experience of ageing in Singapore examining key issues such as health, work, housing, family ties and care giving. It looks at how social categorization enters into everyday life to elucidate the multiple meanings of age and identity encountered in a rapidly changing economy and society. Providing original critical discourse from Asian writers recording Asian voices, Ageing in Singapore will appeal to a wide readership and is an invaluable resource for policy makers, service practitioners and scholars working on Asian gerontology.

Advances in the biomedical sciences have raised pertinent, and often paradoxical, questions concerning the relationship between women's health and their rights. This book, based on the Round Table on Bioethics and Women held at UNESCO during the Fourth Session of the International Bioethics Committee (IBC), presents the experience of field workers and actors in areas as diverse as health, legal affairs, governance, education and psychology. It takes into account both the various stages of the biological life span and the insertion of women in a particular socio-economic and cultural context. Although the book does not claim to be exhaustive, it shows to what extent the specificity of issues related to women in relation to bioethical issues has sometimes been underestimated. Based on numerous socio-cultural experiences throughout the world, it also provides a useful general view for readers who wish to pursue research or studies in this field. [UNESCO website]

This book deals with macro and micro aspects of population change and their inter-face with socio-economic factors and impact. It examines theoretical notions and pursues their empirical manifestations and uses multidisciplinary approaches to population change and diversity. It investigates the organic nature of the relationships between socio-economic factors and population change and the feedback loops that affect socio-economic organisation and behaviour. The book brings together material often scattered in a number of sources and disciplines that helps to understand population change and their socio-economic aspects. In addition to dealing with the more conventional factors in population dynamics in the form of fertility, mortality and migration, the book examines socio-economic forces that influence them. It discusses population evolving attributes that affect population characteristics and social and behaviour and impact on the environment. Further, it deals with social organisation and pathways that lead to different social and economic development and standards of living of diverse populations.