Women have come how far now?

Woman who had to sue to reclaim her birth name dies



Whether she likes it or not. This is why we shouldn't have fundy judges!

I wonder if young people even knew that women had to sue to get their names back.

Too bad she had to die for that idea to get in the news again.

I'm sure you're right that many don't even realize this happened ~ thanks for the post!

I thought it might interest some of the younger DUers!

They never had any trouble doing it.. Maybe it was that particular judge:shrug:

Cannot recall her name. She took on a lot of cases like this. She also got an earful from a smart ass judge who demanded she use her husband's name professionally since he heard she had married. They went round and round. She finally lost any respect for THAT bench and said "Your honor, you don't know the fucking law". That was when I found out there was no legal demand that a woman take her husband's name.

Once you take it, you have to jump through hoops to get yours back. Fuck it. I keep the (first) married name. It is how I was known most of my adult life, and besides, it pisses off his second wife :D

mothers made sure we got a front seat to the women's movement? Bless them.

Come to think about it, that was the beginning of the end of first marriage. Ah, well, for the best.

Granny was the first women polling place judge in her town too. She knew if there wasn't a woman there when other women came to vote, the gentlemen would likely turn them away. She was working an election when she died.

Yes, it runs in families ;)

get your maiden name back. I also remember the first time women kept their maiden names after marrying, not sure when exactly that was though.Every little inch was a struggle back then.

even the most minimal of rights.

on the other hand, the judge in my divorce ORDERED me to resume my father's name (my former, for some reason, just assumed that I would love keeping his name--a name I had taken only because the idiots in the military couldn't handle my having my own name)

actually, I hate the term "maiden name" because the name is, in general, that of the father. nothing "maiden" about it.

I tell them it's because my "maiden" name belonged to one man (my father) and my married name belonged to another man. My first name is the one that has always belonged to me.

I kept my married name after my divorce because all the people I knew in this city had never known me by any other name, and my kids also had that last name.

I was pressured into changing from my maiden name to the married name when I married in 1970, because my husband feared my keeping my original last name would hurt his career by making it seeem as though we were "shacking up" rather than married. There was also a problem with getting the in-state tuition I was entitled to since my husband was a prof at a state university. If I didn't have his name, my in-state tuition was questionable.

The year I amrried, 1970, was practically the Dark Ages where women's rights were concerned. When I went to the doctor to get birth control pills the month before my marriage, since back then you needed to be on them a month to be sure they would work, the doctor lectured me and refused to prescribe them. (I was noa month short of 20 at the time, and he probably thought I meant to become a "loose woman.") I finally found a doctor who prescribed them for me, but it wasn't easy to find one who would!

Until that time, a state could outlaw the use of birth control.

Younger people often have no idea that a state could even think of doing such a thing, or that it could have occurred so recently.

He had one of those first/last name combos that makes you laugh & wonder what his parents were thinking.

We married in 1977 and I was always clear that I had no intention of changing my name. But when we filed our first joint return, the IRS tacked my husband's surname onto my name and notified the Social Security Administration that I had "changed my name". It took me several years to get that straightened out.

I have been pissed for 30 years that the IRS would not let me be listed as Head of Household as a woman with a husband in the house - I had the main income and make all the important decisions. But I got tired of that battle - just getting them and the SS people to use my legal name was hard enough!

Even though I have NEVER used my husband's surname when our lawyers create legal documents, they always include my given name and my name as it would be with my husband's surname and want me to sign both ways. Rather than give the variation that I do not chose to use any legitimacy, I initial that variation and sign the name I wish to use.

And even after all these years, every so often a relative will send things to me as Mrs. Husband's Name. if it comes from hubby's family, I give it to him for him to handle. If it comes from my family I'll include a little note with my full name at the bottom.

We've come a ways, but still not far enough!