View source for Widow

[[File:lighterstill.jpg]][[File:Widow.jpg|right|frame]]

==Origin==
[https://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=English#ca._1100-1500_.09THE_MIDDLE_ENGLISH_PERIOD Middle English] widewe, from [https://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=English#ca._600-1100.09THE_OLD_ENGLISH.2C_OR_ANGLO-SAXON_PERIOD Old English] wuduwe; akin to Old High German wituwa widow, [[Latin]] vidua, [[Sanskrit]] vidhavā, Latin -videre to separate
*Before [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12th_century 12th Century]
==Description==
A '''widow''' is a [[woman]] whose [[Husband|spouse]] has died, while a man whose spouse has died is a ''widower''. The [[state]] of having lost one's spouse to [[death]] is termed widowhood or occasionally viduity. The adjective form is widowed. The treatment of widows around the world varies, but unequal benefits and treatment generally received by widows versus widowers globally has spurred an interest in the issue by human rights activists. 
==Economic position of widows==
In [[societies]] in which the [[husband]] was typically the sole provider, his [[death]] could plunge his [[family]] into [[poverty]]. This [[problem]] can be aggravated by the general longer life spans of [[women]], and that men in many [[societies]] traditionally [[marry]] women younger than themselves. However, even in some [[patriarchal]] societies, widows could maintain [[economic]] [[independence]]. A widow could carry on her late husband's [[business]] and consequently be accorded certain [[rights]], such as the right to enter [[guild]]s. More recently, widows of elected officials have been among the first [[women]] elected to office in many countries (e.g. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corazon_Aquino Corazon Aquino]). In Romantic-Era Britain, widows had more [[opportunity]] for social mobility than in many other societies throughout [[history]]. Also, along with the [[ability]] to [[ascend]] socio-economically, women who were “presumably [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celibacy celibate]” were much more able (and likely) to [[challenge]] [[conventional]] [[sexual]] [[behavior]] than [[married]] women in their [[society]]. 

In other [[cultures]], however, widowhood is much stricter and unarguably more demeaning to the [[rights]]’ of women. Oftentimes, [[women]] are required to remarry within the [[family]] of their late [[husband]] after a period of [[mourning]]. With the rise of HIV/AIDS levels of infection across the globe, [[rituals]] in which women are succumbed to in order to be “cleansed” or accepted into her new [[husband]]’s home makes her susceptible not only to the [[psychological]] [[adversities]] that may be involved, but impeding [[health]] risks. It is often [[necessary]] for women to comply with the [[social]] [[customs]] of her area because her fiscal stature is dependent on it, but this [[custom]] is also often [[abused]] by others as a way to keep [[money]] within the [[patriarchal]] [[family]]. It is also uncommon for widows to [[challenge]] their treatment because they are often “unaware of their [[rights]] under the [[modern]] [[law]]…because of their low [[status]], and lack of [[education]] or [[legal]] [[representation]].” 

Even in the U.S., as of 2004, [[women]] who are “widowed at younger ages are at greatest [[risk]] for [[economic]] hardship.” Similarly, [[married]] women who are in a financially unstable household are more likely to become widows “because of the strong [[relationship]] between [[mortality]] [of the [[male]] head] and [[wealth]] [of the household].” In underdeveloped and developing areas of the world, conditions for widows are much more severe still. However, the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (“now ratified by 135 countries”), while slow, is working on proposals which will make certain types of [[discrimination]] and treatment of widows (i.e. [[violence]], withholding [[property]] [[rights]]) illegal in the countries that have joined CEDAW.
==Widows in Indian Culture==
In [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India India], there is often an elaborate [[ceremony]] during the [[funeral]] of a widow's [[husband]], including smashing the bangles, removing the bindi as well as any colorful attire, and requiring the woman to wear white clothes, the [[color]] of [[mourning]]. Earlier it was compulsory to wear all white after the [[husband]] was dead, and even a tradition known as [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sati sati] or suttee was sometimes [[practiced]], where the newly-widowed woman would throw her [[body]] onto her husband’s burning [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funeral_pyre funeral pyre]. However, in [[modern]]-day [[culture]] the norms for clothing has gradually given way to colored clothing, and sati [[practice]] has been banned in India for more than a century. The ban began under [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_india#Colonial_era British rule of India] and is much owed to the [[persistence]] of social reformer [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ram_Mohan_Roy Ram Mohan Roy], who asserted that sati was a means of showing [[status]] rather than a [[universal]] [[ritual]] in India, and that “there are other ways of doing it than by burning wives.” [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widow]

[[Category: Law]]
[[Category: Sociology]]