WIDOWERS AS REAL MEN: THE EVERYDAY LIVES OF WIDOWERS IN NEW BRUNSWICK CANADA

摘要

This paper explores the everyday lives of older widowers who live in New Brunswick, a relatively rural province of Canada. It is based on an in-depth interview study, from a symbolic-interactionist perspective, with widowers over the age of 60 whose wives had died within the previous ten years. The thematic analysis showed that the widowers used impression management to present their everyday lives as masculine. They minimized their ability to carry out household work, emphasized their relationships with women, and focused on masculine leisure activities. Using quotations from the interview transcripts, the paper argues that losing two pillars of masculinity, work and being in a heterosexual couple relationship, was threatening to the widowers’ sense of masculinity. They framed their everyday activities to remind the female interviewer that they were still real men.