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Is Marriage an Identity Crisis?

Sophie Coulombeau from Cardiff University explores the history of women changing their surnames when marrying.

Women are often urged to consider 'tradition' when deciding whether to take their husband's name, but where did that idea begin?
Sophie Coulombeau from Cardiff University explains the origins of the custom and recalls dissidents who bucked the trend, from Georgian women who went to extraordinary lengths to compel men to take their names, to the early twentieth-century feminist movement the 'Lucy Stoners', who used the slogan, 'My name is my identity and must not be lost'.

Recorded in front of an audience at 麻豆社 Radio 3's Free Thinking Festival of Ideas at Sage, Gateshead.

Producer Fiona McLean.

Available now

15 minutes

Broadcast

  • Wed 5 Nov 2014 22:45

The Arts & Ideas Podcast

The Arts & Ideas Podcast

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