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Unpacking Widow Headship and Agency in Post-Conflict Nepal

Unpacking Widow Headship and Agency in Post-Conflict Nepal Feminist scholars have highlighted a rise in “non-traditional” household structures, as exemplified by female- and widow-headed households, as a consequence of war. This study points to the necessity of disaggregating female headship to trace the contours of household vulnerability of widow-headed households, a subset of female-headed households. The inadequacy of surveys in explaining the interplay between economic vulnerability and social norms is ameliorated through the use of ethnographic data and the narratives of widow heads collected through fieldwork in 2008–9 and 2011. The study traces key coping strategies of widow-headed households in Nepal to provide insight into the processes by which widow heads mediate social institutions and patriarchal norms in their everyday struggles for survival, and the spaces of agency that emerge herein. The study concludes with implications for prevailing understandings of household headship and agency that development practitioners must be attentive to in devising policies to support widow heads. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Feminist Economics Taylor & Francis

Unpacking Widow Headship and Agency in Post-Conflict Nepal

Ramnarain, Smita
Feminist Economics , Volume 22 (1): 26 – Jan 2, 2016
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References (43)

Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Copyright
© 2015 IAFFE
ISSN
1466-4372
eISSN
1354-5701
DOI
10.1080/13545701.2015.1075657
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Feminist scholars have highlighted a rise in “non-traditional” household structures, as exemplified by female- and widow-headed households, as a consequence of war. This study points to the necessity of disaggregating female headship to trace the contours of household vulnerability of widow-headed households, a subset of female-headed households. The inadequacy of surveys in explaining the interplay between economic vulnerability and social norms is ameliorated through the use of ethnographic data and the narratives of widow heads collected through fieldwork in 2008–9 and 2011. The study traces key coping strategies of widow-headed households in Nepal to provide insight into the processes by which widow heads mediate social institutions and patriarchal norms in their everyday struggles for survival, and the spaces of agency that emerge herein. The study concludes with implications for prevailing understandings of household headship and agency that development practitioners must be attentive to in devising policies to support widow heads.

Journal

Feminist Economics – Taylor & Francis

Published: Jan 2, 2016

Keywords: Agency; female headship; gender norms; violent conflict; qualitative methods; B54; D1; O53

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