Widowers’ strategies of self-representation during research interviews : a sociological analysis

This article analyses the strategies that older widowers used to assert their masculinity during in-depth research interviews by the author, a middle-aged woman. Twenty-six widowers living in Atlantic Canada and Florida in the United States and who were aged from 56 to 91 years participated in the study. The author analysed the interviews from a symbolic-interactionist perspective that looks at the world from the perspective of those being studied. The widowers used various strategies of impression management to reinforce their identity as ‘ real men’ during the interviews. These strategies included taking charge of the interview, using personal diminutives and endearments to assert control, lecturing the interviewer about various topics including differences between men and women, and bringing attention to their heterosexuality by referring to themselves as bachelors and commenting on increased attention from women. The paper chronicles the process of discovery of the importance to the study participants of portraying themselves as men. It was found that older widowers’ identity as ‘ real men’ is precarious because they lack three essential components of masculinity : being in a heterosexual relationship, being employed, and being young. The article makes extensive use of the participants’ quotations to demonstrate their attempts, through impression management, to maintain a masculine identity while discussing the very topics that threatened it.