Remarriage in Later Life: Older Women's Negotiation of Power, Resources and Domestic Labor

ABSTRACT

Using data from in-depth interviews with 24 community-dwelling women aged 52–90, this paper analyzes the remarriage experiences of older women in contrast to their first marital relationships. The women's accounts of their experiences in their first and later life marriages are examined in terms of the negotiation of power, resources, and domestic labor. While first marriages were frequently characterized by incompatibility, alcoholism, abuse, and infidelity, second marriages were viewed as the marriages the women wished they had had in the first place or as relationships that met their later life needs. The women's lived experiences are discussed in terms of the changing cultural norms pertaining to gender roles, marriage, and divorce.

KEYWORDS:

• Aging
• women
• remarriage
• lived experience
• division of labor
• power