Intersectional Inequalities and Intimate Relationships

Dating, Class and 'Race/Ethnicity' among Divorced Women in the 'Second Phase' of Life

Bibliographic Data

ID2323159
AuthorsSarah Milton (0000-0003-2626-2976, King's College London), K Qureshi (0000-0001-6862-7852, University of Edinburgh, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume55
Issue1
Pages163-178
Publication date2021-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSociology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0038-0385 • E-ISSN: 1469-8684
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0038038520909289
OpenAlexW3018975720
LanguageEN
Citations received11
References cited34

Responding to increasing discomfort with the lack of diversity in studies of intimacy in later life, this article explores the making of couple relationships among White British middle-class women and British Asian working-class women in their 'second phase of life'. We consider what intimacy means for women at this juncture in mid-life and how they traverse the socio-sexual spaces of dating post-divorce. We examine how women's navigation of dating reproduces wider structures of inequality in intimate life. Talk of compatibility is examined as a veil for the classed and racialised habitus, and deeply implicated in the reproduction of social structures. 'Racial-ethnic' and class inequalities are co-constitutive of the gender and age inequalities stacked against older women's efforts at repartnering. We therefore contend that repartnering is a matter of concern for intersectional feminism

Cultural capital · Ethnic group · Habitus · Inequality · Intersectionality · Life chances · Life course approach · Political science · Race (biology) · Social class · Social inequality · Social science · Sociology · Anthropology · Gender Roles and Identity Studies · Gender Studies · Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology · Work-Family Balance Challenges