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In reply to the discussion: I wish women in the U.S. automatically kept their last names when they marry [View all]Sarah Ibarruri
(21,043 posts)They have enough on their plate with me being the feisty one. lol
And yep, women are not held at gunpoint to change their name, but then I never said that. I said I wished women would keep their own name.
I did say, though, that nearly all women opt for the name change upon marriage, because the tradition from the days when women were chattel has been kept. No longer is it a matter of law. Now it's kept by being romanticized.
Here's an interesting excerpt from an explanation on colonial women's (lack of) rights:
Colonial American women's rights were restricted by the patriarchal view of English Common Law. As in England, women were viewed as chattel and had no individual legal rights. However, American frontier life and the small communities allowed some Colonial women to have more legal and personal rights in the Colonies than in England.
...Husband and wife were considered "one person at law" to be controlled by the husband. A wife and her children were a husband's possessions. However, some wives had a degree of financial independence from their husbands through dowries.
Read more: About Colonial Women's Rights | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/about_4571155_colonial-womens-rights.html#ixzz1kOPOQSLm