Oh, terrific.
Women with a hyphenated last name or their husband's surname are judged as being more traditionally feminine, according to a new study. More specifically, surname-changers are seen as more dependent, less intelligent and less ambitious -- a triple threat of perhaps the most unflattering of female stereotypes.
And you know what that means.
When participants were asked to evaluate hypothetical women as job candidates, "these judgments affected the chance that a woman would be hired as well as the estimation of her salary: compared to a woman who kept her own name, she was less likely to be hired and her salary was estimated considerably lower" -- $1,172.36 lower, to be exact.
Okay, so women shouldn't change their names when they marry. Right?
About 70% of Americans agree, either somewhat or strongly, that it's beneficial for women to take her husband's last name when they marry, while 29% say it's better for women to keep their own names, finds a study being presented today at the American Sociological Association's annual meeting in San Francisco.
Oh, and it gets better.
Hamilton says that about half of respondents went so far as to say that the government should mandate women to change their names when they marry, a finding she called "really interesting," considering typical attitudes towards government intervention. "Americans tend to be very cautious when it comes to state intervention in family life," she says.
So women should change their names when they marry -- heck, maybe the government should even make it mandatory -- but then they'll be perceived as dependent and less ambitious. And less intelligent. And they'll be paid less. But hey, it's all for the good of The Family, so suck it up, ladies.
Who needs to be independent, fairly paid, and intelligent anyway?