In recent years, with the gradual awakening of feminist awareness, more and more Chinese women have begun to demand that their children bear their mother's surnames. This trend is set against the backdrop of a growing feminist perspective.
However, although foreign women's rights have struggled for many years, the direction is more to oppose extreme transgenderism, fight for free employment opportunities for disabled women, and call for the legalization of abortion, which is a more ambitious direction! They didn't object too much to the husband's surname (after marriage, the wife changed to her husband's surname), let alone let alone the children taking their own surname! Why? Compared with the direction of the struggle for women's rights abroad, this demand seems somewhat insignificant and bizarre.
So, why is one of the directions of the domestic feminist struggle now to let children take their mother's surnames, and why are foreign women's rights not working in this direction?
Some clues can be found in the history of mankind. In a matrilineal society, the child knows only his mother and does not know his father, and the child takes the mother's surname. In patrilineal societies, it became customary for children to take their father's surname. In ancient societies, fathers often had the right to take a surname, that is, the right to decide on the surname of their children. Whether this is a mother's concession or a father's struggle, we will not investigate. However, we cannot deny that at least the child followed the father, and the father regarded the child as his own child and took on the burden of raising the child. After all, children are born to mothers, and even if children do not take their mother's surname, mothers will love and care for their children.
Traditional Chinese culture emphasizes the importance and inheritance of the family. Children who follow their father's surname can better maintain family continuity and inheritance. And if the child takes the mother's surname, it may weaken the cohesion and inheritance of the family.