Patriarchy and social pressure: To be widow in Gaziantep

This thesis investigates the experiences of women who become widows either divorcing or after losing their husbands from the perspective of gender. The fundamental argument of the thesis is that women face new problems under the pressure of patriarchal societies after they become widows. A woman living without a husband is cast out and categorized into a new gender due to the negatively portrayed image of "widow" in society. When the challanges of being a widow woman adds up to the the challenges of being a woman in a patriarchal society, it becomes harder to be a women in that society. To determine the challenges, in-depth interviews were conducted with 10 divorced women and 7 women whose husbands passed away, total 17 widow women living in Gaziantep. The questions asked in the interviews were to investigate the experiences of women during their marriage, in the event of divorce and, predominantly, after divorce. In the light of evaluations, the problems started because of the inequality of gender roles in marriages bring additional problems for women if their marriages ended due to any reason. Increasing life problems like economical problems, social exclusion, stigmatization, growing social pressure, being a single mother, pyschological issues is the result of widowhood. Keywords: Partriarchy, Family, Marriage, Divorce, Widowhood, Social Pressure