Single Women/Family Ties: Life Histories of Older Women (New Perspectives on the Family)

This important qualitative study illuminates lifelong single women′s contributions to family development in relation to their widowed peers. Allen examines the social and historical contexts of the women′s childhoods, their experiences as young adults and the processes leading to their being single or married. Midlife variations in family caregiving experiences and the meaning of being single in old age are also discussed.