Blog Option #3

According to the Stephanie Hallett who is a writer for The Huffington Post, “It is estimated that just 8 percent of American women will keep their last names after marriage. That's down from a record high of about 23 percent in the nineties.” (Hallett) The women of Herland couldn’t understand why a woman would give up their name and take her husbands. “Change them? Do the Husbands then take the wives’ maiden names? Oh, no he laughed. The man keeps his own and gives it to her, too. Then she just loses hers and takes a new one-how unpleasant! We won’t do that!,” Alima said decidedly. (Gilman 138) 

“More than 60 percent of people polled agreed that women should take their husbands' last names after marriage, while less than half said a man should be allowed to take his wife's last name.” (Hallett) But the woman of Herland would disagree. Ones community, family, friends, and religion can all play a part in shaping identity. When you come from a community as small as the women of Herland you identity is all you have. Your last name is part of that identity. It’s is something you are born with. It can even play a part of the person you are with your family heritage.

       I felt an instant connection to this article and this topic in the text. I am getting married in a few months and this has come up a few times during conversation with my fiance. I typically just blow it off, but it is something that I am dreading actually sitting down and talking about. I, like the women of Herland think that taking your husbands last name is like losing a part of your identity. I am an only child and have a strong bond with my father. I feel as though I should keep my last name because that part of my identity that I don’t wish to part with. Maybe we can compromise with Reske-Huston? To be determined…

Works Cited

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. Herland and Related Writings. Ed. Beth Sutton-Ramspeck. Buffalo: Broadview, NY. Print.

Hallett, Stephanie. "Changing Your Last Name: Survey Reveals How Americans Feel About Women, Men Changing Their Names." Huffington Post 14 Apr 2013, n. pag. Web. 6 Mar. 2014. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/14/changing-your-last-name_n_3073125.html>.