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
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