Changing Names and Gendering Identity

This book investigates contemporary naming practices on marriage in Britain, drawing on survey data and detailed interview material. A critique of the gender-blindness of sociological theories of individualisation, this volume offers evidence of the continued importance of traditions and the past to the functioning of contemporary society. In dissecting the everyday, taken-for-granted ritual of name changing for women on marriage, it sheds light on the nature of an enduring set of unequal gender relations which are used to organise society, behaviour and interpersonal relations and engages with questions of power, heteronormativity, and gender relations.