Dancing and laughing : women’s narratives of becoming single again at midlife in Aotearoa/New Zealand : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Psychology at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand

Abstract

This research project had as it focus the narratives of women becoming single again at midlife. Heteronormativity coerces our complicity in gendered power relations of domination and subordination, and in particular, through the institution of marriage. Women not in long term relationships are often marginalised, with single women positioned as outsiders. This research used a relational narrative methodology to bring together the voices of six single again women in a counter narrative of our becoming. Through the analysis, three processes of becoming were identified that moved our becoming from painful memories into stories of living joyously and flourishing: reckoning, embracing freedom, and embodying new spaces joyfully.