• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.23 no.1 s.73
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• pp.65-84
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• 2005

In this study, I analyzed how wives experience their husbands' sudden loss of jobs. In-depth interviews were conducted with six married women whose husbands lost jobs. Each person was interviewed for 3 to 4 hours, between June and August 2003. The wives tended to see the husband as someone who gave them a hard time, yet whom they still had to rely on. In addition, the husband was another difficult problem that they had to deal with, because they had to watch the husband struggle to adjust following the distressing event. Some wives blamed themselves for the unemployment of their husbands and were pained for their husbands' adversity. The wives also had the challenge of taking up a job to support the family. Their marital life became tougher and more conflicts emerged. The wives often alienated their husbands from the rest of the family unintentionally, or attempted to break away from their husbands by leaving home. Yet, they returned home in the end, and tried to find hope, by taking a different perspective and looking at the bright side of life, by finding the value of her existence, through faith, and by reaffirming love for the husband and children.