Abstract
In this paper, I analyze the stigma associated with divorce. Drawing on interviews with 104 divorced women and men, I show how stigma attaches to the conditions surrounding divorce rather than to divorce as a general category. Various processes--including the splitting of friends and the development of accounts--lead at least one party to a divorce to feel blameworthy. Individuals who divorce see themselves as excluded from and devalued in informal social life. Finally, I suggest that the divorced participate in stigmatizing divorce: they themselves devalue others who are divorced and sustain the idea that to be married is to be "normal." If we understand stigma as referring not simply to the realm of public sanctions but rather see it as emerging out of everyday experience, it is clear that the divorced continue to be stigmatized.
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Published quarterly for the Society for the Study of Social Problems, Social Problems tackles the most difficult of contemporary society's issues and brings to the fore influential sociological findings and theories enabling readers to gain a better understanding of the complex social environment. Areas covered by the journal include: conflict and social action; crime and juvenile delinquency; drinking, drugs, and addiction; health policy and services; race and ethnicity; and sexual behavior and politics. One of the most respected and widely read professional journals in today's social sciences, Social Problems presents accessible, relevant, and innovative articles that maintain critical perspectives of the highest quality.
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journal article
Divorce in the Progressive EraAmerican Quarterly
Vol. 17, No. 2, Part 1 (Summer, 1965)
, pp. 203-217 (15 pages)
Published By: The Johns Hopkins University Press
//doi.org/10.2307/2711354
//www.jstor.org/stable/2711354
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American Quarterly represents innovative interdisciplinary scholarship that engages with key issues in American Studies. The journal publishes essays that examine American societies and cultures, past and present, in global and local contexts. This includes work that contributes to our understanding of the United States in its diversity, its relations with its hemispheric neighbors, and its impact on world politics and culture. Through the publication of reviews of books, exhibitions, and diverse media, the journal seeks to make available the broad range of emergent approaches to American Studies.
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American Quarterly © 1965 The Johns Hopkins University Press
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