If my memory serves me right, I have written about this from an immigrant perspective. But in this context, here are my views:
1. I think it is HORRENDOUS that it is only the father's name that is attached to the children's names in almost ALL cultures around the world. Excuse the caps but I am also a fierce feminist and the injustice of it all - especially after what a woman has to endure to deliver the baby is ridiculous in my humble opinion.
2. In a lot of cultures - particularly India and Ethiopia (the two I am most familiar with), daughters leave their own parents and go to the husband's family. This means that she leaves the people she is most familiar with, drops her own last name, gives dowry payment (in India and a few cultures), delivers children that don't take her name and has to take care of the family of the husband. That is why in those cultures, having a son ensures the continuation of the family name, having someone there to take care of house work and taking care of the parents. The couples that have only daughters end up constantly worried about the same issues. And that is why there is a lot of murder of female babies in India - to the point that ultrasound to identify the sex of the baby became illegal.
3. Beginning from fairy tales in childhood like Cinderella, Snow White and Sleeping beauty - women are led to believe that the ultimate prize in life is securing prince charming. The fact that something as fundamental as a person's name has to be changed due to a relationship that is supposed to be a partnership - yet only the women has to change her last name - reinforces the cultural pressure that the man/husband/prince charming is a prize to earn. Not an agreement/compromise where both parties make sacrifices.
4. In the more than 50% of cases where there is a divorced, the woman is gifted with added shame of having to revert to her maiden name - especially in an office setting, is sad.
That's all.
1. I think it is HORRENDOUS that it is only the father's name that is attached to the children's names in almost ALL cultures around the world. Excuse the caps but I am also a fierce feminist and the injustice of it all - especially after what a woman has to endure to deliver the baby is ridiculous in my humble opinion.
2. In a lot of cultures - particularly India and Ethiopia (the two I am most familiar with), daughters leave their own parents and go to the husband's family. This means that she leaves the people she is most familiar with, drops her own last name, gives dowry payment (in India and a few cultures), delivers children that don't take her name and has to take care of the family of the husband. That is why in those cultures, having a son ensures the continuation of the family name, having someone there to take care of house work and taking care of the parents. The couples that have only daughters end up constantly worried about the same issues. And that is why there is a lot of murder of female babies in India - to the point that ultrasound to identify the sex of the baby became illegal.
3. Beginning from fairy tales in childhood like Cinderella, Snow White and Sleeping beauty - women are led to believe that the ultimate prize in life is securing prince charming. The fact that something as fundamental as a person's name has to be changed due to a relationship that is supposed to be a partnership - yet only the women has to change her last name - reinforces the cultural pressure that the man/husband/prince charming is a prize to earn. Not an agreement/compromise where both parties make sacrifices.
4. In the more than 50% of cases where there is a divorced, the woman is gifted with added shame of having to revert to her maiden name - especially in an office setting, is sad.
That's all.