Women and men are still unequal even in death

It is notable, when reading articles in any British newspaper, that the language used to refer to the surviving spouse of a man who has died differs considerably from that used to refer to the surviving spouse of a woman who has died. Despite the fact that there are paired words – widow and widower – the way they are used varies greatly. The unequal usage of the two words is evident in countless news articles referring to a deceased man's spouse as his widow or the widow of X. Widow is also quite frequently used in headlines where the woman's marital status is not relevant to the article. In contrast, widower is not regularly used in the same way. Newspaper reports discussing a woman who has died refer to her spouse as her husband and not her widower. Widowed men can be referred to as a husband in headlines, when wife is much less used for widowed women. It is also less likely for a man to be referred to as a widower in headlines not relevant to his marital status. Dictionaries and style guides do not give rules for the ways widower and widow are used, but a study of online newspaper articles clearly shows a huge discrepancy of uses of widow in contrast to those of widower. For example, the Daily Mail website had a story with the headline "Widow awaiting cancer surgery told to get back to work by benefits inspectors under government's welfare reforms". A West Midlands evening newspaper, the Express and Star, featured the headline "Widow must rehome 13 cats or face 20,000 fine". However, there were no articles where a man was called a widower in similar circumstances. Instances of the words widow and widower are wildly at variance in all newspapers, including this one. In the past year, there were 475 widows and just 50 widowers in the Guardian, 729 widows and 114 widows in the Daily Mail, and 918 widows and 147 widowers in the Sun. An online search suggests a ratio of about 15 widow references to one widower in the Independent, eight to one in the Telegraph, and six to one in the London Evening Standard. When the death of the first female soldier killed in Afghanistan was reported in 2008, her husband was typically referred to as her husband and not her widower; the term war widower seems barely exist. In some instances, widow used with a possessive has occurred when the woman in question is more famous than her husband. One website discussing titles of address referred to Dame Judi Dench as "the widow of actor Michael Williams" rather than "the wife of the late actor Michael Williams" – if she had been the spouse who died, it's highly likely that he would have been described as "the husband of the late Dame Judi Dench". It seems evident that the different ways widow and widower are used is left over from the days when women were defined in language by men and not as individuals in the own right – hence "the widow of X". This clearly reflected the then different roles of women and men in society. Despite the change of gender roles and the rise of feminism it seems that many people are resistant to social change leading to language change. By using widow and widower differently, outdated attitudes towards women and men are being reinforced.