transfer of authority?

So...occasionally I find myself watching the show "17 Kids and Counting" (which should be 18 kids and counting now i think...) because I find their family really interesting...while it's personally not my style, I think they do a great job of raising their kids and, what can I say, I get hooked sometimes...

Anywho, getting to the point of my post title, the episode is on where the oldest kid, Josh, gets married. (Don't get me started on the whole 'not kissing to they're married thing--no sex, I understand...no kissing? I don't get it.) Anyways, they interviewed Anna's (his fiance/now wife) dad and he made a comment about how when your daughter gets married, the fathers authority over his daughter is now transferred to her husband. So, in effect, instead of her father holding authority over her, her husband does--and that's the way God intended it to be.

Could I disagree more?

I mean, does God truly say that not once in her entire life, does a woman have authority over herself?? Her father controls this authority until the day she gets married? I think the thing that bugged me the most was that people actually feel this way today. Has society not evolved? Does a woman really need a man to be in charge of her for her entire life?

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for finding a man that wants to take care of me and I'm okay with letting him take care of me. But does that mean he holds all the authority? And does that mean that I can't take care of him back? I thought a marriage was supposed to be equal, right? At least that's the type of marriage I want. I want a marriage where I make decisions with my husband, together. I expect there will be days where my husband makes more decisions than me and vice versa. But it all evens out in the end. Or it should.

I don't know...I really feel like I'm not even getting my words out right so I'm going to stop...but just the way these families looked at marriage was really hard for me to swallow...