Elderly widowers suffer more than widows because wives remain necessary while husbands become useless

Evidence

Her husband was often older than she, she witnesses his decline with silent complacency: it is her revenge; if he dies first, she cheerfully bears the mourning; it has often been observed that men are far more overwhelmed by being widowed late in life: they profit more from marriage than women do, and particularly in their old age, because then the universe is concentrated within the limits of the home; the present does not spill over into the future: it is their wife who assures their monotonous rhythm and reigns over them; when he loses his public functions, man becomes totally useless; woman continues at least to run the home; she is necessary to her husband, whereas he is only a nuisance. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1737

Categorization

• SEED: An essay angle on how marriage’s asymmetrical usefulness flips in old age — the ‘useless husband’ who depends entirely on his wife’s domestic ordering.