Created January 2011
As a result of their loss of status and frequent inability to access and control land, widows often live in poverty. In addition to resulting in food insecurity and a lack of education opportunities, this poverty also leaves widows and their children more vulnerable to maltreatment in the form of domestic violence, sexual exploitation and prostitution, and trafficking. The cycle of poverty is frequently repeated, as widow's children are less likely to receive education and girl children are sometimes forced to marry early.
Physical Violence
Widows are also vulnerable to physical violence, both at the hands of their families and at the hands of outsiders. In the course of inheritance disputes, widows are often subject to physical abuse by relatives seeking to extra-judicially claim property belonging to the deceased husband. Recourse to courts is often unavailable or ineffective. From Widowhood: Invisible Women, Secluded or Excluded, Women 2000 and Beyond, Division for the Advancement of Women, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Further, a widow may be reluctant to challenge a relative’s use of violence if that relative is providing support to the widow. From Margaret Owen, A World of Widows.
Many widows turn to work in the domestic service industry, which is largely unregulated. Frequently, domestic servants are compensated in food and shelter instead of being paid, which increases their dependence on the family for whom they work. In such situations, widowed domestic servants are prime targets for exploitation. Kalaayan, an organization that supports foreign domestic servants in the United Kingdom, has reported that it assisted widowed domestic servants from the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. From Margaret Owen, A World of Widows.
In Europe, where there has been an increase in violence perpetrated against older women, elderly widows who live alone and in care facilities are at risk of both physical and emotional abuse. From Widowhood: Invisible Women, Secluded or Excluded, Women 2000 and Beyond, Division for the Advancement of Women, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
Trafficking and Commercial Sexual Exploitation
Widows and their children (especially daughters) are at a higher risk for being commercially sexually exploited and/or trafficked. Widows living in poverty without access to land or work and without an education may turn to prostitution or begging to survive. In India, thousands of widows live in and around temples such as Mathura, Varanasi and Tirupati, and, as sensationalized in the Indian and international media, many of these widows are forced into prostitution. In Bangladesh, it has been reported anecdotally that many young girls, often the daughters of widows, are being trafficked to brothels in India. From Widowhood: Invisible Women, Secluded or Excluded, Women 2000 and Beyond, Division for the Advancement of Women, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
One author describes the path to prostitution as beginning with a widow’s acquiescence to a man’s demand for sexual acts in exchange for needed assistance. When the man leaves her, breaking off their “friendship,” the woman is seen as a prostitute in the town. After several such abandonments, the woman may migrate to a larger town or city to engage in actual prostitution. Alternatively, some widows become domestic servants, and upon becoming pregnant as a result of sexual abuse, are ejected from the house, at which point they begin engaging in prostitution. In the context of HIV/AIDS, engaging in prostitution can have particularly devastating consequences. From Margaret Owen,
A World of Widows.
Widows’ Children
Widows often must withdraw their children from school due to poverty. Girls are likely to be withdrawn before boys, and are often engaged in taking care of younger siblings while their mother works, or begin working themselves. Girls who do not attend school are at greater risk of becoming child brides and mothers, and of suffering the associated physical, mental and economic difficulties associated with childhood marriage. From Widowhood: Invisible Women, Secluded or Excluded, Women 2000 and Beyond, Division for the Advancement of Women, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
In the former Soviet Union, it has been reported that many street children may in fact be the children of widows who are unable to care for them. From Widowhood: Invisible Women, Secluded or Excluded, Women 2000 and Beyond, Division for the Advancement of Women, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
Compiled from:
Widowhood: Invisible Women, Secluded or Excluded, Women 2000 and Beyond, Division for the Advancement of Women, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs(2001)
Margaret Owen, A World of Widows (1996)