Burning Bras

Rolande Dubreuil can't even remember a time when married women in Quebec were known by their husbands' names.

The 28-year-old, who got married last year, was just 2 in 1981, when the province passed a law decreeing that women keep their own names when they marry.

Feminists hailed the law as a symbolic step toward equality of the sexes. But a quarter-century later, some brides are questioning the government's right to dictate a choice they think should be personal.

"I detest the fact that the decision is imposed on me. It makes me think of the feminists who burned their bras."

said Dubreuil, a homemaker in St. Roch de l'Achigan, 60 kilometres northeast of Montreal.

Letter to Premier

The issue surfaced in August when a Gatineau woman wrote to Premier Jean Charest demanding the right to use her husband's name.

Caroline Parent's stance sparked lively debate on Internet wedding forums and unleashed a flood of letters to The Gazette from women bemoaning that they are forced to use their maiden names.

The controversy pits women demanding freedom to choose against those who hail the law as a landmark for women's equality.

Not Sexism

But Dubreuil doesn't associate her desire to take her husband's name with sexism.

"Obviously I don't feel like a piece of livestock. For us, it's a beautiful tradition."

Parent, a federal civil servant who is still awaiting Charest's response to her letter, said she has received many messages of support.

Parent is originally from Ontario but her husband, Karl Lamirande, is from Quebec. The main reason she wants his name is that she plans to have children and would like everyone in the family to have the same last name.

Alain Roy, a family law professor at the Université de Montréal, said many of the young women he teaches want to take their husband's name when they marry.

"It's simply a matter of convenience. It holds no negative symbolism for them."

Stark Contrast

About 95 per cent of American women still take their husbands' names, said David Johnson, a sociology professor at Pennsylvania State University who has studied the issue with his wife and research partner, sociologist Laurie Scheuble.

Educated, urban women are more likely to keep their names than those with less schooling and those in smaller communities, Johnson said.

"You go to rural parts of the Midwest like Nebraska, for a woman to keep her name is unheard of. It creates a stigma."

"When you get married, you become a joint being. I definitely believe the kids should take one name."

said Laura Ellner, 25, a newlywed from Montreal now living in Toronto.

Roy said it's time for Quebec to soften its stance on married names:

"Women are mature enough to choose. They should have the choice, like women elsewhere."

© The Gazette (Montreal) 2007, "Do you take this name? Some Quebec brides want to say 'I do'" by MARIAN SCOTT, The Montreal Gazette, Monday, December 03, 2007.