Of Jill Filipov's Essay Why Should Married Women Change Their Names

In the twenty first century women are identified by their marital status. We often assume based on the term Ms. and Mrs. and that creates our perception on the women and their roles. In Jill Filipovs’s essay “why should Married Women Change Their Names? Let Men Change Theirs” she discusses her theory on name changing and how it generates an economic issue often put aside in this age. Changing ones last name to match that of ones husbands is becoming very common; about 90 percent of women in our generation happily change their name when they get married. The problem with this is it ruins the identity of the women and defines them as Ms. or Mrs. The problem with these terms of marital status are it identifies women based on a relationship, wipes away their identity, and makes it easier for others to assume the women’s roles in the household making it marker to acknowledge their role outside the household as well. Ms. identifies one by their relationship and according to Filipovic “it lessens the belief that our existence is valuable unto itself, and that individuals we are already whole. It disassociates us from our self...” What she means by this is that after a woman changes her name it makes her feels less valuable about her worth and
existence in the world. Woman are often judged based on a marital term and therefor accept the fact of that. In the twenty first century women now have the right to vote and to make a difference in our society, however we still allow a term like Ms. to keep the definition it had in early civilization. In early civilization women didn’t have the right to vote or even work, their main role was working in the household and raising the kids. Due to the fact times have change women still allow the term Ms. to define that role given in the previous years. With women in the work force and political scene we should feel a deeper valuable to our name and carry it with pride, because we have a change to impact society in ways we couldn’t before. If a marital status identifies women in this age, then that means we really don’t have one of our own. Being identified as somebody else’s property should make women feel worthless just how Filipovic claims. Changing ones last name creates a new person and wipes away the old regardless of what you achieved and how you valued yourself .This all gets destroyed, once others see a new name they also see a new person making it harder to transport the old you into this new name “A name change means a new driver’s license, passport, professional documentation, the works. It means lost opportunities personally and professionally (Filipovic, pg. 26.)” Creating a new name make it harder for others to find and connect to one. It means others see a new person and forget about the one who had been using her maiden name before.
The term Mrs.
also allows people to define women mostly with the assumption of her role in the household. It allows others to view her as a simple caretaker or housewife. In the twenty first century women do so much more and it often goes unseen. For example women are more likely to take education seriously, because they want to create a better life for her kids and to be seen as a good role model. Many women in our society are bringing home a huge salary and some are even making more than men. That is often not taken into consideration when one hers the term Ms. Tthe thought generated from this term is offensive to Filipovic and should be changes, because women should be defined by their actions outside the household as
well.
In conclusion the economic issue for women when they change their name is lessening their value to society by having her identity defined by a marital status. These issues include loss of personal identity, false assumptions, and judgment due to a marital status. The term Ms. in this age should allow woman to feel confident in their name and their roles in and outside the household but too often “today’s marriages are typically based on love instead of economics (Filipovic, pd. 27).” This is why women face the economic issues and false definition gave to them by their marital status.