From solo-living to being alone: A comparative study of two groups of women living alone in Tehran

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
fatemeh fallah minbashi 1
abbas Kazemi 2
Farah Torkeman 3
1 azad Tehran university
2 research of society
3 Azad Tehran
10.22034/jcsc.2021.538405.2455
Abstract
Today there is a considerable number of people who live alone.Some have chosen to live alone and others have been forced to do so. Meanwhile, the proportion of women living alone has significantly increased. This study aims to compare the lived experience of two groups of single women who live alone, the first group chose this life-style voluntarily and the second was forced to live alone, to explore the similarities and differences. Taking a phenomenological approach, data was collected from interviews with 28 unmarried women over 40 years of age living alone in Tehran either voluntarily or involuntarily. Research findings show voluntary solo-living women are mostly educated, employed and enjoy a good social and economic status. They are eager to present themselves as an independent, self-made, and determined woman by improving their education, skills, and abilities. In other words, they partly accompany the prevailing idea in neoliberalism, that individuals prefer to be alone and define and limit their relationships according to their priorities. In contrast, forced solo-living women are who have not married, willingly or unwillingly, and have remained single. They have either been forced to separate from their families due to family pressures, or they have been left alone in life with the loss of their parents and forced migration. This group not prepared to manage a solitary life. The independence and individual freedoms gained as a result of this lifestyle are unattractive to them, and but most of them see marriage as a way out of this situation.

Keywords

  • 172. Aliabadi, O. Serajzade, H. (2017). Study of Sololiving phenomenon in a sample of girls in Tehran. Master Thesis of Sociology . kharazmi University. (in persian)

    • Band-Winterstein, T & Carmit Manchik-Rimon, 2014, The Experience Of Being an Old Nevermarried Single: A life Cource Perspective (2014), INT’L. J. Aging and Human Development, Vol. 78(4).
    • Bankipourfard,Amirhossein,Kalantari, Mahdi,Masoodiniya, Zahra (2011), The Rate of Marriage Among Youth in Iran, knowledge in Islamic university, vol 3,pp26-47. (in persian)
    • Bauman (2003), "Liquid Love", Cambridge: Polity Press.
    • Beck, U. and Beck-Gernsheim, E., (1995), "Normal Chaos of Love", Cambridge: Polity Press.
    • Becker, B. and Charles, N (2006), 'Layered Meanings: The Construction Of the Family In the Interview', Community, Work and Family, Vol. 9, No. 2: 101-122.
    • Bellah, R.N., Madsen, R., Sullivan, W.M., Swidler, A. and Tipton, S.M., 1985, Habits Of The Heart, Berkeley: University of California Press.
    • Budgeon Shelley (2016),"The ‘Problem’ with Single Women: Choice, Accountability and Social Change, Journal of Social and Personal Relationships". 2016, Vol. 33,No. 3: 401–418.
    • Budgeon, S. (2008), "Couple Culture and The Production of Singleness", Sexualities, Vol. 11, No. 3: 301-325
    • Creswell, John (2013). Creswell, John W. Qualitative inquiry & research design.Translation: Hassan Danaeifard and Hossein Kazemi. Tehran: Safar Press.
    • Giddens, A. 1992, The Transformation Of Intimacy: Sexuality, Love, and Eroticism in Modern Societies, Stanford: Stanford University Press.
    • Giddens, Anthony (2008). Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late. Translation: Nasser Mofaqian. Tehran: Ney Publishing.
    • Habibpour getabi,karam.Ghafari,Gholamreza (2011). A Study on The Causes of Rising Mariage Age Among Girls, Women in development and politics , vol. 32, no. 1, pp. 7-34. (in persian)
    • Iman,Mohammadtaghi (2010). Permission Paradigmatic of quantitative and qualitative research methods in humanities .Ghom: Zeytoon Press. (in persian)
    • Jamieson, L., 1999, 'Intimacy Transformed? A Critical Look at the 'Pure Relationship'', Sociology, vol. 33, no. 3, pp. 477-494.
    • Jamieson, L., Backett Milburn, K., Simpson, R. and Wasoff, F., 2010, 'Fertility and Social Change: The Neglected Contribution of Men's Approaches to Becoming Partners and Parents', The Sociological Review, vol. 58, no. 3, pp. 463-485.
    • Jamieson,2009, 'Solo Living, Demographic and Family Change: The Need to Know More About
    • Javahri, F . Helali Sotoude, M. (2017). The Desire to live Single. Collection of Articles on the Social Situation of the Country. Volume II. Pp.171-211. (in persian)
    • Jeong-Hwo Ho, The problem group? Psychological wellbeing of unmarried people living alone in the Republic of 32, Article 47 Korea, 2015, Demographic Research: Volume Research Article.
    • Karen Gail Lewis & Sidney Moon, .Always Single And Single Again WomenĜŒ A Qualitative Study (1997), Jounal of Marital and Family Therapy. Vol 23. No 2. pp 115- 134.
    • Memar ,Soraya, Yazd khasti. Behjat(2016).  Lived Experiences of Working Girls Aging between 30 to 49 about Celibacy. Journal of Social Problems of Iran. . vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 149-172. (in persian)
    • National survey of values and attitudes of Youth iranian (2019). Ministry of Sports and Youth of Iran. (in persian)
    • O’Reilly, Ruthie,2012, Solo Living in the Neoliberal Era: Negotiating Ambivalence and Recuperation, Thesis of Doctor Philosophy,Discipline of Gender Studies and Social Analysis, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Adelaide,
    • Papinejad, S, & Karami Ghahi, M . (2013). Socio-cultural contexts of Sololiving of single girls in the metropolis of Tehran. Dissertation, Master Thesis study of women. (in persian)
    • Putnam, R.D., 2000, Bowling Alone, New York: Simon and Schuster Paperbacks.
    • Qaderzadeh ,Omid , Gholami, Fatemeh, Elahe Gholami (2017), Semantic reconstruction of girls’ lived experience of singleness. Women in development and politics. vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 403-426. (in persian)
    •  
Cultural Studies & Communication
Volume 19, Issue 72
Autumn 2023
Pages 87-117