Laura Salisbury of BU has a fact: It look as though northern Civil War widows with pensions (as opposed to northern Civil War widows without pensions) delay remarriage for three years. This surprises me: I had thought it likely that women with pensions would be attractive on the marriage mart--yes, they lose their pension when they remarry, but the lost pension goes to their kids, and money is fungible. But apparently not: female agency--the desire to stay independent rather than marry that drunkard--trumps the male eye for placing a widow with assets earlier in the wooing queue.
Clearly my knee-jerk reactions underrate female agency...
