[Biographical factors and the experience of aging as perceived by single women and long-term widows]

The article deals with biographical factors of the perceived aging process in never-married women and long-time widows. A short survey is given on some aspects of these two forms of family status as it is reflected in the gerontological/social science literature. It is criticized that the situation of the married women was regarded as a taken-for-granted norm of female existence in old age for a long time while the majority of the so-called single women was looked upon as a deviant minority group. The need for a differenciated view of the single women's situation including biographical aspects is stressed. The empirically based analysis of the perceived life space of older women within the Bonn longitudinal study of aging proves the inadequacy of the label "single women" which seems to conceal the psychologically and sociologically interesting diversity within this social category: The perceived aging experience of the never-married women and the long-time widows of this sample is strongly influenced by biographical aspects and can be characterized by different patterns of aging representing distinct types of social categories.