Change their ideas about engagements and marriage.
Women demand equality and that is cool.
However you cannot demand this change and accept the sexism within relationships and specifically marriage in this country.
Women seem to be fine with becoming property of men as long as it is disguised as marriage. Women dream and dream about being proposed to. Let me explain what a proposal is. It is the man getting down on one knee and asking that the woman become his property. It is asking she strip her individual identity(name) and take on his. The symbol of this property ownership is the man giving a ring to the woman. In a truly equal society men would not carry this burden.
The reality is, a joint partnership should require equality on both sides. A woman should not take the name of their husband, or both should take on each others names. A woman should not have to be proposed to and a symbol of ownership is not needed.
Marriage is about the commitment to one another and not a romantic/dramatic proposal, practicing of traditions that marginalize one sex and the wearing of symbols that do nothing to indicate this commitment and love is real. The reality within is what counts.
It is bogus and is demeaning to women. I believe they are equal to men, but they fail to recognize this glaring hypocrisy.
In a true quest to have an equal society, these practices/traditions must be change, or women will continue to be treated and looked at as " Mr. Chauncy's Wife"
It's time for women to rid themselves of their grade school girl fantasies about engagements, marriages, commitments, LOVE, and truly become women.