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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.
In Spain and most Latin American countries the woman has NEVER changed her name. I thought it was an Anglo-Saxon custom. It has always irked me that some men insist on it, I feel like they want to erase their wife’s self. And to be introduced as Mrs Joe Smith is awful, she has been obliterated. Changing the woman’s name is a law only in Hawaii.
If a woman has ALREADY established a successful professional career and a positive, respected, professional reputation under her maiden name, I can understand why she would need to keep her name, regardless of whether or not she wanted to.
Its more of a Christian, and possibly a Jewish tradition/observance/commandment as the bible says; ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” mrk10;7-9
Sorta hard to claim you are one when you carry two names.
and tomorrow, we will see a study telling us that water is still wet
My wife joined my family, so she changed her name. I didn’t take anything from her, she gained something. It was a huge sign of respect to me that I value to this day. She is also a strong and powerful woman despite what some idiots would assume. People should be like libertarians and realize they don’t have the right to care about someone else’s personal decision. Its very liberating… You can do it!!
I work in a job where I have to call for people by their last names. The hyphenated dual last names some women have are just an assault on the English language. Crunchy, unwieldy, cumbersome, unlovely.
And guess what? Keeping your maiden name means keeping your father’s name. So you are still bowing to convention.
The “No Sh8t Sherlock” Study.
Does he sit when he pees?
Why is the divorce rate so high??? Oh wait
Someone had to study this?
Does Elsie use Stowell or her maiden name?
And husbands that prefer sucking on penis over sex with their wife may be gay.
“Robnett argues. “It reflects subtle gender-role norms and ideologies that often remain unquestioned despite privileging men.”” – And that’s when I knew Robnett has spent way too much time in the Bubble of Academia and Latte Clutches. Just gross to even read a sentence like that… all Newspeak-y and all.
That’s because they’re more likely to be liberals. It’s a symptom. “Liberal” is the disease.
No surprise. I have known many couples where the wife choose not to take the husband’s name. In every case, the husband was a wuss and was henpecked. Most ended in divorce within five-ten years. Most ended childlessness. A few had hyphenated name children, most of whom had parents who were separated by the time the children hit high school. Interestingly not a single man I know who had a wife who kept her maiden name and subsequently divorce married another woman who kept her maiden name – in every case the second wife took the husband;s name. Which goes to show that even wusse’s get tired of being wusses.
This is one more attack upon the family. Insecurity is never a cause for rejecting the latest feminist nonsense. Accepting it might be,
My wife took my last name but still wears the pants. After 32 years, I don’t give a flying F*&#. She gives me an illusion and I live with that..
Dah?
Meow….CRACK!!!
and how many zillion dollars did we waste finding that out? Sheesh!
Funny how the icon of feminism (Hitlery) refuse to give up her husband’s name after he cheated on her multiple times.
I played in a band in the early 2000’s that did some weddings.
One wedding reception we played at, the groom (a college professor), had actually taken his wife’s last name.
Yes, I’m serious.
But her dad was absolutely loaded with dough, and the reception was at her parents’ very swank McMansion.
And Daddy paid us good, so whatever…good luck with that, dude..
Not me….
Ordinarily I think this is true, but I knew a guy who took his wife’s last name. He had this really long Polish last name, and her last name was Henry. He liked the idea of being known as John Henry, so there are exceptions.
Mine and your post hit about the same time. I’ve seen it once, too.