Opinion | Opinion: The case for Chinese women to pass on their family name

With the implementation of China’s two-child policy, many Chinese women are asking their husbands the same question: should our second baby have my surname instead of yours?

It is largely a private discussion but it could have significant social implications in China, where the fertility rate has dropped to an alarmingly low level.

In my view, it’s time to change the tradition of assigning the father’s surname to a child. Instead, China should encourage children, especially daughters, to have their mother’s family name.

While it is taken for granted today that only the father’s surname should be inherited, this custom is, at the end of the day, a product of an agricultural past. In days gone by, male physical superiority, as well as the need to pass private property on to male heirs, gave birth to a patriarchal system in which all children bore their father’s surname.

In a modern society, the physical advantages of men have become less relevant, and the economic and social status of women have risen steadily.

So much so that about 32 million family businesses will be handed on to a second generation in China, with many already controlled by women. Thanks to the country’s one-child policy, many of their heirs will be daughters but patriarchal rules have deprived them of the opportunity to have the women’s contribution recognised in the next generation by name.