The divorced woman

Abstract

In this personal memoir, the author returns to the dissolution of his mother’s marriage with an abusive husband, and the impact it had upon her life in a working-class town in 1950s Britain. The divorced woman was subject to social humiliation, while the failed relationship marked her out for suspicion among other women in the community, and the unwelcome advances of their husbands. The article reflects on the nature of the welfare state as a means of enabling women to break from social strictures by providing them with the security to make personal choices beyond established conventions and practices.