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RENO, Nevada — What’s in a last name? Muscle, apparently. Men married to women who opt to keep their maiden names after tying the knot are often viewed as less masculine and lacking pants in the relationship, according to researchers.
The 2017 study out of the University of Nevada involved three related studies in the United States and United Kingdom. Study authors were hoping to learn how a woman’s decision to keep her last name affected how others perceived her husband.
The researchers’ first two studies found that whenever a husband’s last name differed from that of his wife’s, he was frequently described in ways that both deemphasized his masculinity and overemphasized any feminine characteristics.
Meanwhile, previous research has shown that wives who shun the time-tested naming tradition enjoy a number of benefits, including higher social status and perception of power, along with increased self-focus, ambition, and assertiveness.
These qualities run counter to older, rigid portrayals of women, which depict them as kind and nurturing, yet powerless, the researchers note.
“A woman’s marital surname choice therefore has implications for perceptions of her husband’s instrumentality, expressivity, and the distribution of power in the relationship,” says Rachael Robnett, the study’s lead author, in a journal release. “Our findings indicate that people extrapolate from marital surname choices to make more general inferences about a couple’s gender-typed personality traits.”
Robnett’s third study showed that men who held steadfast beliefs on traditional gender roles showed increased prejudice against husbands who didn’t share their last name with their spouse, seeing him as disempowered.
“We know from prior research that people high in hostile sexism respond negatively to women who violate traditional gender roles,” she explains. “Our findings show that they also apply stereotypes to nontraditional women’s husbands.”
While societal change benefiting women has continued at a steady pace, many feminists still wonder when women will no longer be expected to take on their husband’s surname, which they regard as an obsolete practice.
“The marital surname tradition is more than just a tradition,” Robnett argues. “It reflects subtle gender-role norms and ideologies that often remain unquestioned despite privileging men.”
The study’s findings are published in the journal Sex Roles.
Paper Summary
Methodology Breakdown
The researchers conducted three interconnected studies to explore their hypotheses. In the first study, 139 U.S. college students were asked to describe a man whose wife kept her surname after marriage, with their responses coded into various categories. The second study involved 72 adults in the UK who were randomly assigned to read about a couple where the wife either changed her name or kept her own, then rated the husband on masculine/feminine traits and relationship power. The third study followed a similar experimental design with 144 U.S. college students, but also included a measure of hostile sexism to examine how participants’ attitudes influenced their ratings.
Results
The studies consistently showed that when a wife kept her own name, her husband was perceived as less masculine/instrumental, more feminine/expressive, and as having less power in the relationship. These effects were most pronounced among participants with more sexist attitudes. In the first study, about half of the participants described the husband using feminine traits. The second and third studies demonstrated statistically significant differences in how the husband was perceived based on his wife’s surname choice.
Limitations
While insightful, the studies had several limitations. They relied on hypothetical scenarios rather than real couples, and participants had limited information about the couples beyond the name choice. The samples were not fully representative of the general population, and the research focused only on heterosexual couples. Additionally, the complex, multifaceted nature of power in relationships was measured using a simplified approach.
Key Takeaways
The research suggests that marital naming traditions both reflect and potentially reinforce traditional gender roles and power dynamics. Breaking with the surname tradition can lead to stereotyping of both women and men, with sexist attitudes amplifying negative perceptions of men whose wives keep their names. The pressure to conform to masculine norms may help explain the persistence of the surname tradition. These findings have implications for couples making surname decisions and reveal subtle mechanisms through which gender inequality is maintained in society.
Funding/Disclosures
The researchers did not report any specific funding sources for this study. They acknowledged Paul Nelson for providing feedback on an earlier draft and Desiree Melton for assistance with coding. No conflicts of interest were disclosed in relation to the research.
Note: This article was first published November 27, 2017.
Such men are not only viewed as less masculine, they are, in fact, less masculine, the ones who announce “we’re pregnant.” Talk to one, or just observe one. It’s obvious.
They’re the ones in the park sporting man buns, skinny jeans, neck beards, and papooses, posing as “stay-at-home-cuckolds” or house husbands. They are the ones who also pretend to breast feed their infants, because they’re as insane as their husbands, er, their wives.
Seriously? It took two research studies to find out what the rest of us already know? LOL!
As for representing traditional portrayals of women as being “powerless”….it is not true! The man is the head of the household. But the woman is the neck, and she can use her power to turn the head any way she wants!
My wife & I have a successful marriage. At the start, we agreed I am the head of the household and I get to make all the major decisions. In 17 years of marriage, we have yet to encounter any major decisions. LOL!
I known some of these permissive husbands. Many of their wives won’t even wear a wedding ring, let alone take their name. It’s funny watching those husbands pretending they’re not miserable milquetoast beta boys with their “hyphenated” wives. But it’s a sad joke, nonetheless. These men have to act like they got a pretty good deal in life, and they’ll even get all sanctimonious around their male friends, saying they’re somehow advanced or enlightened for having wives that wave off every tradition — EXCEPT the neo-feminist tradition of “divorce rape” which surely more than 60% of these sappy “hyphenated men” will suffer.
Could you imagine being one of those wussies who read this article with a wife who refused to take his name. Realizing, maybe I really am a wussie.
The saddest part of this “study” is that you need it to tell you something so BLINDINGLY OBVIOUS. Why do women say they are KEEPING their surname, dummy? They do it so as not to “GIVE IN TO THE PATRIARCHY”! So how can a man who accepts this idiocy be anything other than a Liberal, which is to say NOT A REAL MAN?
Selection bias, anyone?
Those men who are cowed into agreeing to a wife’s decision not take his last name have three characteristics . 1. They want to be a” little boy” taken care of by a new Mama.
2. They are progressive liberals that are easily influenced by the toxic cultural marxism that is so pervasive in American society.
3. They are heavy consumers of soy milk.
File under “Duh, no shiite, Sherlock”. Even more so if “he” takes “her” name.
Yeah, at that point the penis should just be sheared clean off an handed over for the wife to keep in a drawer for when he’s a “good boy,” along with his spine.
How selfish do you have to be to not want your own future children have same last name between the two parents. Also, it’s important for guys to pass down their last names, whereas, woman have never mentioned that it was about passing down their names, it just about empowerment to them or “equal rights” to them (like it’s one sided, the men don’t ever give up anything when they get married).
I knew a guy who actually took his wife’s maiden name as his last name when they married. It went downhill from there…she dragged him into her drug use and drug activities. Last I knew, he was heading to prison.
Buying her an engagement ring is a show of commitment.
Taking his last name is a show of commitment.
If she’s unwilling to take his name, she shouldn’t expect a ring.
Or make sure you give her a CZ…
I wonder if feminists wonder why most women no no longer identify as feminists. I can help–it’s because feminism is no longer about equal rights, it’s just anti-male.
Pushed by really unattractive women who’ve been rejected by real men… #bitter
Nothing new from this report. Either be a man or be the straw scarecrow with the crow sitting on your head doing a crap. The ultimate doormat !
Again. Another stupid, tax-funded “study” to prove what anyone with an ounce of common sense already knows. How much did this “study” cost us?
I love reading these reports from The Center for Obvious Research, always reaffirming what we’ve known all along!
Did they study the ages of the couples when they got married? I bet the older you are the less likely the woman is to change her name.
Women who think they are enlightened and feminist will find themselves in their late 40’s, ugly/aging, no dudes wanting them, no kids to take wonder in raising and depressed on meds until they commit suicide or withdraw from society in depression. Or in one more attempt at staying young looking will screw up their faces so bad with plastic surgery they will be laughed at.
There will be some of those, but for the most part I’m afraid you are wrong…there will always be a constant supply of thirsty, desperate, loser males ready to take on the feminist dregs (given no other options in life). These kinds of men are just as worthless, and usually carry bad genetics.
Between you and me, I think we have it covered.
All by design. Destroy the family from all angles. Homo marriage is now normal, broken homes are the majority, and Jesus is watching all of it.
I’m sure Jesus has long since walked out of the picture after heaving all the rotten fruit within reach at the screen. I know I sure would’ve.
Speaking only for myself, I disagree with the findings. I once was married for ten years to a lady who chose not to change her last name to mine. It neither helped nor hurt the relationship, and no one of our acquaintance expressed a negative opinion. If anything, it demonstrated my strength in my own self-worth. I am masculine sufficiently to not allow such a small thing to diminish either my ego or my relationship with her. And she simply chose to avoid the bureaucratic process associated with changing her name (see: Social Security Administration). The name thing had nothing to do with our eventual breakup.
Yeah, her being into chicks and you being into dudes is probably what ended the marriage…
Smiling ape makes me laugh .
YOU ARE A DELUDED FOOL WHO IS LESS THAN A REAL MAN. You have convinced yourself that your wife refusing to take your name didn’t hurt the relationship but you never asked her WHY she wouldn’t take your name. She didn’t RESPECT you enough to do so. And by the looks of it, SHE WAS RIGHT.
I love the comments from the macho men. For them it is quite easy. In the land of the inbred their wive don’t even have to change their last name being they are brother and sister.
Spoken like someone who makes his own sammiches…
You mean, like Eleanor Roosevelt?
That is why you sit alone in the bar every night complaining about the Bitc***. That is why you are alone and all women hate you.