A Social Psychological Review on Women’s Surname Change after Marriage and Divorce

Abstract

Surname is an integral part of a person’s identity. However, surname which has many psychological and social meanings for the person is changed only for women after marriage. In this regard, the purpose of the article is to review the factors affecting women’s decisions regarding surname choice after marriage and divorce, as well as explaining the stereotypes and attitudes towards women who made traditional or untraditional name choices. In terms of the marital surname choice, women may adopt husband’s surname, hyphenate their birth surname and their husband’s surname, and retain only their birth surname. In this context, we presented not only related demographic variables such as age, socio-economic level, education level, and political orientation but also social psychological variables such as emphasis on family/motherhood, sexism, feminist identification, religiosity and perceived social norms. Then, studies focusing on the attitudes and stereotypes towards women who make different marital surname choices were presented. The traditional surname change was also considered in terms of patriarchy and gender-based discrimination. Additionally, possible effects of the post-divorce surname change on a woman's life were mentioned. In the conclusion part, the effects of surname change at the individual and societal level were discussed in parallel with the issues mentioned in the current article and further possible research ideas were suggested. Keywords: Surname change, surname choice, marriage, divorce, sexism, attitudes, stereotype