Changing your name should be simple. After all, it’s yours. But for women, the reality is a bureaucratic maze that exposes how fragile & conditional our identities are treated under the law.
Consider this: a woman marries, takes her husband’s surname, and dutifully updates every document - driver’s licence, passport, bank accounts, Medicare card, superannuation, utilities. Each change requires proof, signatures, and sometimes fees. Then, years later, she divorces and decides to reclaim her maiden name. Suddenly, she’s asked to produce a long paper trail of “identity changes” just to return to the name she was born with.
Secondary status and scrutiny
It’s not just inconvenient. It’s a reminder that women’s identities are often seen as secondary, tethered to marital status rather than personal autonomy. Men rarely face this kind of bureaucratic scrutiny. Their names remain stable, unquestioned, and legally uncomplicated.
Identity and power
The irony is sharp: the system demands women prove who they are, over and over again, as if their identity is suspect. A surname change becomes a test of endurance - a gauntlet of forms, certificates, and official stamps. And each step reinforces the idea that women’s identities are negotiable, contingent, and never fully their own.
The administrative burden
This isn’t just about paperwork. It’s about power. When reclaiming your own name requires justification, it signals that the system values tradition over autonomy. It tells women that their identities are not self-determined but conditional on relationships, institutions, and approval.
Every agency wants its own proof, every office has its own rules, and every step costs time, money, and emotional energy. For women already navigating the upheaval of divorce, this administrative burden is salt in the wound.
Systemic bias and what women deserve
It’s time to call this what it is: systemic bias. Identity should not be a privilege granted by paperwork. It should be a right. Women deserve streamlined, respectful processes that recognise their autonomy, not endless hoops to jump through.
Why a name matters
Because at the end of the day, a name is more than letters on a card. It’s history, dignity & selfhood. And no woman should have to fight a paper war just to reclaim what was hers all along.