"One of the less discussed achievements of the women's movement is the option to reject the patronymic naming system, i.e. the convention of women replacing their own family names by their husbands' names when they get married. This book offers an analysis of Israeli women's naming practices while tracing vocabularies of nationalism, orientalism and individualism in women's accounts. Such vocabularies are claimed to reinforce the local dominance of familism rendering women's sense of belonging, ambivalent. The book is an account of women's agency and positioning operating within ethnic stratification structures, showing how the achievements of the women's movement require continuous organized protection"--Provided by publisher.

Women's inner struggle over their marital names reveal how they negotiate a specific identity location in each dimension of identity. This book tackles a complex sociological project of examining three existing theories, and will prove to be important for the study of Gender and Middle Eastern Culture.