A not so undesirable status? Widowhood options and widows' living conditions in post-emancipation rural Estonia.

Widowhood has been a strongly gendered experience, and elderly widows, in particular, have traditionally been seen as one of the most vulnerable groups in society. This article observes remarriage behaviour and widows' living conditions in the Russian Baltic province of Livland in the post-emancipation era. Detailed findings are presented for one community in the parish of Paistu and two communities in the parish of Helme. The article combines cross-sectional and longitudinal population data with community court records. The article aims to show that if the economic situation of the widowed people improved in the post-emancipation era, older widows (>40) increasingly used possible alternatives to remarriage. The area of investigation was characterised by low propensity to remarry (less than 20%) and the likelihood of remarriage among the landless diminished over the course of the nineteenth century, but among landholding peasants, the decline became more pronounced in the second half of the century. The vast majority of the farmer widows and over half of the landless widows lived with their children, unmarried or married. The upkeep of the elderly was arranged through intergenerational cohabitation both among the farmers and the landless. Court records indicate that farmers' widows were properly provided for and, if the children happened to be reluctant, the court compelled them to fulfil their legal obligations to their mother or stepmother. The average number of years spent in widowhood was 19 years and approximately 60% of all women widowed between 1834 and 1885 lived longer than 65 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]