Why Should Married Women Change Their Names Essay

As human beings, we have a way of identifying ourselves through letters and digits. We identify ourselves through series of digits, such a social security number, for official identification and letters, such as names, for everyday use. Most of us have grown attached to our identification and as a result of this, it has become a part of our identity. Jill Filipovic, a freelance writer, states that your name is, “the term for you is what situates you in the world” (Filipovic 26). Filipovic suggests that your name is your identity in which the whole world knows you by. Filipovic wrote an opinionated article, titled “Why Should Married Women Change Their Names? Let Men Change Theirs”, that was about how women are losing their part of their identity, because of the change in their last name after marriage. A change in name is a personal and individual choice, changing your name may have some losses in opportunities, while keeping the tradition, and keeping your name may be outside the social norm for some, but your identity remains intact. Women should have a choice in their last name; they can keep their last name, change it to their husband’s last name or even create a new last name. The first choice a woman has is to keep their last name.
This option could be done in many numbers of ways. One could create a brand new name for themselves and their spouse/family or even have both the husband’s and wife’s last name combined together as the new last name. Filipovic believes that women have suffered enough over the centuries of inequality and servitude, and that the idea of men changing their names or doing hyphenation is a fair solution for women (Filipovic 27). She mentions that a name holds value and power, and that too would be lost like your identity when a woman changes their name. This option is great for those who do not want to be associated to a particular person or another family with the same last