This paper reports on a study of 30 white, middle‐class American women who have suffered severe losses in household income as the result of divorce. It argues that subjective interpretations of “downward mobility” following divorce differ for women from two different cohorts or generations. These differences are explained in terms of the dynamics of the domestic cycle that distinguish the two cohorts and in terms of variations in symbolic systems each group maintains as a result of historically specific experiences. The concept of symbolic dialects is developed to analyze these variations. The paper also identifies different adaptive strategies of adjustment to income loss and the ways these affect relations between children and divorced mothers. [American culture, symbolic analysis, income loss, life cycle, divorce, women's studies]
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