TY - BOOK

T1 - Understanding Gender and Diversity in Europe

T2 - Experiences of Migrant Single Mothers in Denmark

AU - Mehdi, Rubya

PY - 2023

Y1 - 2023

N2 - Abstract This study is about single mothers widely in the European context withthe specific narratives of 10 Pakistani women migrants who came to Denmark from acollectivist cultural background into an individualist culture in the 1960s–1980s aswives of Pakistani men. Due to either being widowed or after divorce, for whateverreasons, they live as a specific category of single mothers, with cultural differencesfrom migrants with similar individualist cultures of Western backgrounds.A single mother’s independent family type is not recognised in collectivist societieswhere the collective comes prior to individual interest. The family is the foundationof society, man is the head of it, and women are identified in relation to men aswives, mothers, sisters, and daughters. In contrast, individual rights are paramountunder individualism, women are more independent, and the single-mother family isrecognised as an independent family way of living. The results of qualitativeempirical work indicate that collectivism and individualism are not pooled apart;the possible transition between the two cultures can be discerned from developmentpatterns in single women giving way to more individualistic and egalitarian relationships. Migrant single mothers from non-Western backgrounds reconcile by mixingboth collectivism and individualism, leading to the emergence of mélange familismregarding divorce, marriage, paid employment, rearing children, sexuality, an attitude towards old age and rituals. Under collectivism, family law is a mixture ofculture, traditions, religion, and patriarchal values. A similar development isobserved in the legal sphere; the important change noted is the evolving individualism in family laws, such as maintenance, custody, mahr, iddat, marriage contract,and marriage guardian, leading to the need to develop feminist jurisprudence.

AB - Abstract This study is about single mothers widely in the European context withthe specific narratives of 10 Pakistani women migrants who came to Denmark from acollectivist cultural background into an individualist culture in the 1960s–1980s aswives of Pakistani men. Due to either being widowed or after divorce, for whateverreasons, they live as a specific category of single mothers, with cultural differencesfrom migrants with similar individualist cultures of Western backgrounds.A single mother’s independent family type is not recognised in collectivist societieswhere the collective comes prior to individual interest. The family is the foundationof society, man is the head of it, and women are identified in relation to men aswives, mothers, sisters, and daughters. In contrast, individual rights are paramountunder individualism, women are more independent, and the single-mother family isrecognised as an independent family way of living. The results of qualitativeempirical work indicate that collectivism and individualism are not pooled apart;the possible transition between the two cultures can be discerned from developmentpatterns in single women giving way to more individualistic and egalitarian relationships. Migrant single mothers from non-Western backgrounds reconcile by mixingboth collectivism and individualism, leading to the emergence of mélange familismregarding divorce, marriage, paid employment, rearing children, sexuality, an attitude towards old age and rituals. Under collectivism, family law is a mixture ofculture, traditions, religion, and patriarchal values. A similar development isobserved in the legal sphere; the important change noted is the evolving individualism in family laws, such as maintenance, custody, mahr, iddat, marriage contract,and marriage guardian, leading to the need to develop feminist jurisprudence.

U2 - 10.1007/978-3-031-40893-9

DO - 10.1007/978-3-031-40893-9

M3 - Book

SN - 9783031408922

BT - Understanding Gender and Diversity in Europe

PB - Springer

CY - Switzerland

ER -