Or at least there wasn’t.
Merry widows? How attitudes to bereaved women have changed
Societies around the world have always had a problem with a wife who no longer has a husband. But what does the W word mean in the modern era?
Widowhood – and widowerhood – were such common events that there was a routine and social structure for what happened next. Wait some decent enough period – 6 months to a year perhaps – then remarry. Job done.
There wasn’t a problem with this in the slightest. So it’s not actually a past problem at all, at least not in English society. It’s this past century and a bit that is the unusual part, where death tends to end marriages much later than it used to.
Presumably the “decent period” of waiting was literally that: one wanted to know who the father of the next child was.
Islamic law is very clear on this. The waiting period after divorce or widowing is not just that time period but described as being exactly for that purpose.
A lot of rambling pretending to be a “news” article which is actually a plug for a new novel out by the writer..
OK.. It’s the Graun, but…. They’re not even trying to hide anymore?
“Widows are some of the best lays. They don’t yell, they don’t tell, they rarely swell, and they’re often grateful as hell.”
R.A.H. (roughly from memory, either L.L. or Jubal Harshaw line )
Husband dies, wife hardest hit.
In other societies, widows were an encumbrance. Hubby’s family didn’t want them, neither did their own family want them back – another mouth to feed. See ‘suttee’.
Rich widows have never been a problem, pretty much in any culture. The King’s mother was a powerful position in almost all places.
As tractor Gent says, poor widows were not so lucky.