Yeong-Chyuan Chen
Institute of Life and Death Education and Counseling National Taipei University of Nursing and Health Sciences
Haunn-Tarng Tseng
Institute of Life and Death Education and Counseling National Taipei University of Nursing and Health Sciences
This study aimed to compare and contrast the grief reactions of widowed men and women and critique the arguable notions of masculine grief and feminine grief. In-depth interviews were conducted individually with 5 widowers and 5 widows aged 37 to 71, none of whom remarried. All 10 had children and were either employed or participated in volunteer work. Primary results include: At the moment of spousal bereavement, grief reactions typically started as seemingly more rational (such as appears unaffected) and later, transitioned to more emotional reactions (such as crying). Second, widowers tended to express their feelings more, while widows tended to suppress their emotions. Third, all of those widowed were reluctant to seek emotional support from the outside, and this was significantly more pronounced in widows compared to widowers. To conclude, the present essay argues that masculine and feminine grief would benefit from being recoined rational and emotional grief, respectively, as a more appropriate and accurate description of grief reactions and the grieving process. Moreover, well-adjusted widowers or widows usually combine both rational and emotional forms of grief.
Keywords: feminine grief, widowed woman/widows, masculine grief, widowed man/widowers, grief reactions