Posted: Jul 8, 08 3:46pm
I've always had a decidedly independent nature. I'm at least half Scottish (the other half being Irish and Scots/Irish.) I recently read something, in "Damn' Rebel Bitches -- The Women of the '45," by Maggie Craig, which intrigued me. It's a book about the women who took an active part in the Jacobite rebellion of 1745, which was an attempt to put a Scottish King back on The Throne. . .
This is the passage that intrigued me:
". . . A Scotswoman retained her own name [even in 1745 and before] even after marriage, and was not legally required to adopt her husband's. . . Interestingly, this is still the legal position today. If Jean Smith marries Alan MacDonald, legal documents will describe her as Mrs. Jean Smith or MacDonald. A Scotswoman keeps her own identity."
I've always insisted on retaining my "Birth Name," as I insist on calling it, and I wonder how many other women of Scottish heritage have similar attitudes about their right to autonomy/independence. I can assure you that I definitely like the opposite gender -- I simply wish to interact with them as an equal, and not a potential piece of property. I think it is beneficial to both genders. . . I would love to hear the thoughts of other women of Scottish descent, and also the thoughts of those who know or have known such women, regarding the inclination to be independent. And, yes, I realize we live in the twenty-first century and not the eighteenth, but it is surprising how many people are still offended by my having kept the name I was born with. As if I don't have the right to do so, but a man does. I never have had any problem with my children having their father's name. I think that it's a way for the father to say "I acknowledge this child as my offspring." Afterall, it's rather obvious who one's mother is. . . I simply prefer to keep my own familial name, and I find it comforting to see that apparently some of my female ancestors did, too! My mother and both of my grandmothers used their 'maiden' names as their middle names, after marrying. Obviously, they felt a similar attachment.
