In this framework, couples separate when the utility that they can expect from remaining married falls below the utility that they can expect from divorcing and possibly remarrying.
In the last half of the nineteenth century, negative attitudes towards elderly widows remarrying may have persuaded farmer widows to refrain from remarriage and to choose another option.
It is also possible that the increasingly systematic provision of poor relief from the late sixteenth century onwards had a negative impact on the proportion of widows remarrying.
While the presence of dependent children seems to have increased the likelihood of remarriage, widows with children all over the age of 12 conversely had few chances of remarrying.
Placed at the bottom of the household hierarchy along with servants (recall the case of the ' little old woman ' in household twenty-five), they were virtually barred from remarrying.
A scrupulous husband might wait for two full years before remarrying, while his children completed their mourning obligations.
The advantages of freedom from control and obedience were familiar features of texts considering the case for widows not remarrying.
As expected, the remarriage risk of widows was more sensitive to age, in the sense that the risk of remarrying fell significantly as age increased.
