For the Prince and Kate, when they marry, everyone they interact with will know they are married. If the purpose of a wedding ring is to indicated “taken” so as to stave off unwanted advances, then the rings for them are redundant. The Prince can wear one or not, and Kate can wear one or not. However, if the Prince chooses not to wear one, and if Kate were to decide to stop wearing hers and the Prince didn’t like it, then that would be unfair. I don’t agree that the wearing of rings and the name taking issue are all that similar. We all know women who kept their X’s last name, even when they didn’t have kids, but quickly reset their engagement diamond into a pendent from their defunct ring. To me this indicates that names are not the same as rings.
I did not take my husband’s name when we were married for career reasons. I wasn’t trying to make a feminist statement, it was just that I had established myself in my career with a certain name and I would have lost that “branding” if I had changed my name. My husband was a little disappointed at first. He was worried about our future family (kids) not having the same last name as both of their parents. I half jokingly suggested he take my name to solve his concern, as his name was not yet branded in his career. He didn’t and the issue was dropped and has not been a problem since. We are both practicing Christians (Mormon) in a very traditional community, so at church I just roll with the assumption by others that my last name is my husband’s name. Actually, it’s kind of fun having an alias.
While professionally I kept my maiden name, I do wear my wedding ring every day to indicate to others that I am married and unavailable. My husband does the same, and I appreciate that. We are now both far enough in our careers that there is a high chance of flirtation from employees who might want to climb the ladder by climbing into bed. I’m not sure whether or not wearing our wedding rings discourages this, but we hope it does.
