Browsing by Subject "divorce"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Contesting Husbands and Masters: Law, Society, and the Marital Household in Colonial Lima
    (2015-07) Wisnoski III, Alexander
    This dissertation examines marital relations, and specifically marital conflicts, in early colonial Lima in order to analyze gender and power in the Spanish Empire. Through my reading of cases held before the ecclesiastical tribunal, I show how wives and their supporters resisted and questioned husbands’ authority primarily through reifying of patriarchal norms, in the form of the ideals of manhood. Rather than challenges based on the perceived rights of women, the citing of failures of marital masculinity dominated the discourse of these trials. This marital masculinity encompassed the nature, characteristics, and actions expected of a married man. This manhood was rooted in broader early modern Catholic ideals and comprised expectations of provision, protection, and fidelity. In addition to following Church prescriptions on appropriate behavior for men, the patriarchal expectations found in these cases involved upholding the racial hierarchy of colonial society. Wives and witnesses highlighted instances such as the use of racial epithets and infidelity that crossed racial lines as further failures to live up to the masculine ideal. This dissertation approaches the dynamics of gender domination from a number of perspectives. In chapter 1, I examine the petitions by women seeking a divorcio (ecclesiastical divorce which dictated the separation of bed and board) and analyze how they criticize their husbands for falling to fulfill their marital masculinity. Chapter 2 shows how mothers and brothers intervened in marital conflicts and reveals their investment in gendered authority. Looking beyond parents and siblings, chapter 3 highlights how community members, and especially neighbors and enslaved Africans, helped to police the duties of husbands through their testimonies to the court. Chapter 4 analyzes the conflicts between married slaves and their masters over relocation that would separate the couple to further demonstrate the link between race and manhood, one in which white masculinity trumped black masculinity. Throughout these trials, arguments based on marital masculinity proved to limit the power of patriarchs, namely husbands, but, as I demonstrate, did little to mitigate the extent of gender domination ingrained in the patriarchal structures of Lima and the broader Spanish Empire, as the patriarchal authority shifted from husbands to Church officials.
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    The Lived Experience of Ambiguous Marital Separation
    (2018-06) Crabtree, Sarah
    Researchers have long treated marital separation as a transition that inevitably and linearly leads to divorce, even though not all separations end this way. The small number of studies examining separation as a marital status distinct from divorce is limited in scope; most of this research is concerned with prevalence, separation outcomes, and marital instability following a separation. Popular sources suggest that some couples separate without clarity about how the separation will end, often for the purpose of assessing whether to divorce or stay married. However, no research on this this kind of ambiguous separation has yet been done. With a sample of 20 currently separated persons from various locations around the United States, I employed a hermeneutic phenomenological design to inquire about the experience of being separated from one’s spouse when the separation was initiated without knowing how it would end. Special attention was given to women’s experiences of this phenomenon. Six essential themes emerged from the interviews: 1) Our relationship feels ambiguous, 2) separation is a private experience, 3) separation is a lonely experience, 4) there are benefits to separating, 5) separation is not sustainable, and 6) the way out is unclear. A discussion of the implications for the study findings is provided.
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    Parenting After Divorce with an Immigrant Community: An Exploration of Hmong Parents’ Parenting Experiences
    (2023-06) Her, Malina
    Parents with shared children are faced with many challenges after a divorce or separation. One such challenge is to negotiate shared parenting responsibilities with their former spouses. This can be further exacerbated for immigrant parents as they may lack the know how or resources to traverse the legal system, in addition to seeking out a cultural divorce. Moreover, divorce may still be highly stigmatized which can serve as a barrier for communication between parents and between families. Yet little is known of how immigrant parents come to share their parenting responsibilities after divorce and the role of family in this process. This paper is comprised of two qualitative studies with immigrant community in the US: a study with Hmong key community informants to explore their perceptions of barriers to shared parenting and the role of family in the decision-making process; and a second study with divorced Hmong parents centered on their parenting experiences after divorce. The initial qualitative study broadly follows a community engaged approach with 17 key community informants selected to share their knowledge on the topic. A semi-structured interview guided by previous literature on divorce and parenting was designed. A thematic analysis of the transcripts found 6 themes. Themes revolved around perceived barriers to communication between former spouses and the role of specific family members in facilitating or impeding the shared parenting process. The second qualitative study was guided by an interpretative phenomenological approach with 10 divorced Hmong parents. Five Hmong fathers, and 5 Hmong mothers were part of this study. Through analysis, themes centered on how parents came to their current childcare arrangement, what were their experiences in sharing parenting responsibilities with their former spouses, and the role of family in the shared parenting process. Implications for findings across the two studies are also shared. Most importantly, findings seem to support a need for a cultural lens to better understand the experiences of divorcing parents. Many in this community do not come into contact with the legal system after a divorce and instead implement informal shared parenting arrangements. Findings raise concerns of how applicable the clan mediation system of divorce remains applicable for Hmong parents in the US today. As Hmong families acculturate and adopt more Western ideologies of parenting, this may clash with the culture and presents ambiguity for parents in how to share parenting after divorce. Moreover, it is unclear how clan leaders sanction childrearing arrangements if at all. For parents that use the legal system, they may be required to participate in mandated parenting education programs. Yet the applicability and effectiveness of such programs for Hmong parents needs further exploration as findings across the two studies here illustrate both structural and cultural barriers to maintaining contact between former spouses. Most importantly, family members seem to play an instrumental role during the decision-making process of shared parenting arrangements and after divorce as a caregiver role. Thus, further examination of how intervention programs and resources are adapted to include the extended family after divorce could be helpful for closing some of the gaps in this community. Moving forward, suggestions for future directions include continued exploration of how immigrant parents come to share parenting, the role of family during this process, and the impact of the various arrangements on child adjustment and well-being.