A recent Quebec decision has opened the door just a smidgen to women who want to take their husband's name.
On July 19, Superior Court Juge Michel Delorme ruled that a woman officially named Monique Gratton -- who wants to be called Monique Noel -- can legally change her name to Monique Gratton-Noel.
The Repentigny acupuncturist married a guy with the last name Noel in 1986 and has Monique Noel on all of her identification, including her passport and so on.
Quebec passed its Charter of Human Rights in 1975 and amended the civil code to add a section 391, banning a woman from taking her husband's name, in 1981.
The logic is that the woman should not take her husband's name because it makes her seem like her husband's property. Quebec considered itself ahead of its time and indeed it appears very much ahead of its time because other places failed to duplicate the measure.
In the United States about 95 percent of women still take their husband's last names and according to this excellent Gazette article from 2007 many young women in the Kweeb still want to take their husband's name, not because they consider themselves his property, but rather because they see it as a symbol of family unity.
Quebec has one of the very lowest marriage rates of any place and the benefits of marriage are pretty significant insofar as married couples stay together more than unmarried couples and divorce damages children, so there's an upside to encouraging marriage over other relationships, may as well give 'em what they want methinks.
There is at least one passionate, ongoing campaign to overturn the civil code amendment, as articulated here, although its accompanying petition only attracted 34 signatures, so you have to imagine that it might have been counterproductive to have that add-on.
Whoever designed the campaign to allow women to take their husband's last name put some research into it, looking at customs elsewhere and pointing out that Quebec courts consider it legit for criminals to change their names but won't grant a woman that same right.
A woman should be considered sufficiently adult to make choices on her own without the state intervening to block it.
Monique Noel persuaded the judge to allow her to use her husband's last name - albeit in that ridiculous double-barrel form Gratton-Noel -- by pointing out that she has bad memories from her childhood and she felt traumatized by being called by her default name.
Good god! I didn't know this! My mom got married in 1969 and took my dad's name so never realized the ban. So glad I moved the hell out of Quebec, married an Englishman with a normal last name as my maiden name is so annoying, no one knows how to pronounce or spell it despite only having 5 letters, two of which are the same!!!
ReplyDeleteI'm fine with taking the name or not (it should be the woman's decision) but the hyphenated names drive me nuts.
ReplyDeleteWhat excatly happens when Joe Smith-Bergeron marries Martha Patel-O'Leary and they have children? Little Jacob Smith-Bergeron-Patel-O'Leary? Good luck getting that on the back of a Little League Uniform. It will only take a couple generations of that nonsense before the whole idea of "family names" becomes meaningless. Maybe we will all be referring to each other by our Social Insurance numbers by then.
Banning the name change is kinda weird, never heard about that law before. Kids can choose either names as far as I know. On the other hand, Quebec is lightyear ahead of the US in term of decoupling mariage from living together and building a family. In the US, its all about the formal dating, engagement ceremonial, big wedding while in Quebec its so much more relax. I wouldn't be surprised if the divorce rate in Quebec is comparable to the US one. Barely any of my friends are married, all have kids, happily married and building a future together. No one looks at them as if they were aliens committing sin. Oh and their kids are not baptized as well which used to be an other sin in the pre-Quiet Revolution Quebec.
ReplyDeleteSome basic misunderstanding of the law going on here. The reform of the family law that took place at the beginning of the 1980s was much more extensive than "preventing a woman from taking her husband's name". It did away with backward notions like "illegitimacy" of children, to mention only one other thing. It was the first book of the "new" Civil Code of Québec to go into force, replacing the Civil Code of Lower Canada that is now just a memory.
ReplyDeleteIt is also not uncommon in civil law jursidictions (like Québec and most of continental Europe) for people to exercise their civil rights under their legal names, which are those given at birth or subsequently changed accoriding to the rules in effect. (In Québec, you have to have a valid reason to change your name — I got married not being one of them — and it's largely about making sure that you aren't trying to duck out on those who might have claims about you, as well as affirming your value as a person.)
And the hyphenated name thing? The rule is that you can't have more than two components, so your hockey sweater is safe.
The benefits of marriage in Quebec are more distinct than in the rest of North America (I don't know about other places) in that we don't have common-law marriage, although Anne-France Goldwater is trying very hard to change that omn behalf of "Lola". (A judge at one stage of the Eric-Lola trial said she would not change the law because she'd be in effect marrying thousands of cohabiting Quebecers with a stroke of the pen.)
ReplyDeleteKids born to any couple have rights derived from both, whether they stay together or not, but you can live with somebody 20 years here and not be considered married to them. I tend to think it's a positive thing for people to have that option but I've been shouted down.
Thanks for the comments Keith. That's one thing about anglo-saxon North America that's so different, they have disdain for intellectuals, probably because they attempt to dictate their ideas about society while the rest of the working world is busy trying to accomplish whatever it is they do in life. I think that laws and customs should be designed not based on theory, but rather based on what the people want.
ReplyDeleteI thought this law was totally bizarre when I moved here from the States. My wife wanted to have the same last name as her husband(me) and our children but Quebec law forbids it. It seems like that's an infringement upon women's rights, not an empowerment. The government is dictating that Women here do not have the right to take their families last name if they want to.
ReplyDeleteThis law was designed by quebec francophone extremist's and quebec french language police.Reinforcement of Napoleonic law vs Common law in rest of Canada and world.It has nothing to do with women rights . Another Cover up to many similar quebec discriminatory laws.
ReplyDeleteAll in name of radical francophonism.
This is not a law from the extremist or language police!
ReplyDeleteIt actually dates back to the 1700's, and enforced in 1981
And for those of you who think it's an infringement on women's rights... That reminds me of the debate when quebec wanted to ban the hijab and muslim men's argument was that it was going against women's right...see the irony?
As for the children having all these last names ,
First off, it has been working in Latin America just fine
And for those who worry about the never ending last names and possible confusion to your children,
If you can't figure how you are going to sort this out,
You got bigger issues and perhaps should not be in charge of making decisions.