Single people are targets of singlism: they are stereotyped, stigmatized, and discriminated against. Research documenting singlism is piling up, but do Americans realize it even exists? And if they are told about ways in which single people are treated unfairly, do they acknowledge that the unequal treatment is in fact unfair? YouGov just reported the […]

My heart was broken again recently, when I heard the story of still another single person (I’ll call him Sam) who really wanted to stay single but could not get past the feeling that doing so would mean there was something seriously wrong with him. Sam and many other people whose best life may well […]

On November 29, the Census Bureau released its estimates of America’s family and living arrangements for the year 2021. Results showed a continuation of trends ongoing for decades. The number and percentage of unmarried Americans has grown, as has the number and percentage of people living alone. The age at which people first marry, among […]

In some ways, it has been a good couple of weeks for calling attention to the ways in which single people are disadvantaged. For example, in his opinion piece in the New York Times, Charles M. Blow said: “As a society, we have to start asking ourselves whether it is fair and right to continue […]

Jaclyn Geller, a longtime member of Unmarried Equality, is guest-posting here to share her bold (and sometimes hilarious) Call to Action for single people who are tired of the pervasive unfairness that advantages married people and deeply disadvantages anyone who is not officially married. Geller, an English professor and author of Here Comes the Bride: […]

Married men are paid more than single men. That has been demonstrated so many times, researchers have a name for it: “the male marriage premium.” The question now is why. Do married men deserve to be paid more because they are better workers? Or are employers discriminating against single men? Or is it some of […]

The Census Bureau just released their first-ever report on older people in the U.S. who do not have biological children. For those of us interested in single people, the report is relevant because 7 out of 10 older adults who have never married do not have any biological children. It is also important because single […]

Photo by Caldera Gem Here at Unmarried Equality, we mostly focus on the big ways that single people are targeted with discrimination, such as the institutional biases that are written into laws, policies, and practices. But the everyday prejudices matter, too. In two new studies, researchers showed how getting patronized, excluded, and unsupported undermines single […]

Something unusual and quite good happened when President Biden signed the Covid relief bill, the American Rescue Plan, into law on March 11, 2021. The needs of a group of Americans who are typically ignored, single adults with no children, were recognized and addressed. Maybe you haven’t heard anything about this. In some of the […]

What if we wanted all Americans to be economically secure—what would that take? In an important article, “Uncoupling,” just published in the Spring 2021 issue of the Arizona State Law Journal, professors Naomi Cahn and June Carbone offer an answer: Benefits need to be uncoupled from marriage and employment. It is perhaps the most fundamental […]