الملخص الإنجليزي
The study aims at investigating the most prominent features of widows who benefit from Social Security and the social and financial challenges they encounter. The study, also, explores the correlations between the social and financial problems and the following variables: (location, age and children's jobs) as well as suggesting mechanisms which minimize the challenges encountered by widows according to widows' point of view.
The study has adopted the descriptive approach and combined both qualitative and quantitative methods to analyze the data which has been collected through Structured interview to a random sample of 84 widows from different parts of South Batinah (Alrustaq, Alawabi, Nakhal, Wadi Almaawel, Barka and Musanah)
The study has found different findings summarized as below according to the different sections of the study:
Section One: This section discusses the general characteristics of widows who are under Social Security. The study has found that most widows have low level of education (illiterate), most of them are under age 40, and the average number of their children is seven and the highest number of children is 16. The average of widowhood is eight years and 59.5% of the widows belong to extended family while 40.5% belong to nuclear families. Most of these widows have working adults and they don't have another income than the insufficient Social Security income. The number of widows who live independently house after the husband's death is very high while there is a number of widows who move to live in their family's house. The study, also, has found that most widows do not encounter problems regarding division of inheritance.
Section Two: The study shows that widows greatly sympathize with their children and suffer from the feeling of loneliness after the husband's death. The widows' children experience deterioration in their level at school due to the difficulty to follow them up. The widows' health declines after the husband's death and they usually refuse to remarry in order not to be distracted from raising their children up. Moreover, widows' social relationship and interaction fall especially with the deceased husband's family.
Section Three: This section is concerned with the financial problems. The study has found that the widows are affected by the increasing cost of basic needs and the insufficiency of the Social Security income to cover the basic needs of the family. Widows, also, know nothing about the charities which can support them.
Section Four: This section presents the correlation between the social and financial problems and other variables (location, age, children's jobs and duration of widowhood). No correlation has been found between the social and financial problems and the variable of location (mountainous versus coastal areas). Yet, significant differences has been found between the group of widows whose age is below 40 and widows who are above 50 years old for the favor of the first group with regard to social problems. A significant difference is, also, found between the group of widows who are between 40 and 50 years old and widows who are above 50 years old for the favor of the widows who are between 40 and 50 years old. However, no significant difference has been found between the age variable and financial problem and between the social and finical problems and the variable of children's work.
Section Five: This section points out the procedures of minimizing the social and financial problems from the widows' point of view as following:
First, the importance of supporting widows financially via the charities as well as the importance of social support. The Ministry of Social Development should enroll widows in training courses which help them to set up their own projects which can provide an extra source of income as well as preparing programs to enable widows to cope with their social problems. Besides, there should be efforts to raise the religious society's awareness with regard to widows' problems. The Omani Women Associations should take active roles and prepare programs which can support widows financially.
