Sometimes it is obvious when people are treating others unfairly. Some examples of discrimination are blatant. Consider this example that Wendy Morris and Stacey Sinclair and I tested in our study of housing discrimination. We told our participants that a landlord was choosing between two potential tenants, and both had steady jobs and were described […]
Because People See Marital Status as Controllable, They Don’t Think It Is Unfair to Discriminate Against Singles
Bosses Who Are a Dream to Their Married Workers and a Nightmare to Their Single Ones
Tomorrow (September 18) is the first day of Unmarried and Single Americans Week, a time to keep in mind the ways in which single people contribute to society but are rarely recognized or rewarded the way married people are. Consider, for example, some workplace practices. Earlier this year, the boss of a UK company proudly […]
Structural Singlism: The Blatant and Insidious Ways It Undermines Our Lives
In everyday life, single people are often stereotyped and stigmatized in the conversations they have with other people. The kinds of things other people say to us, and about us, sometimes reveal that they think single life is something people are stuck with, and not something anyone would actually choose. The kinds of questions they […]
Communities of Single People as Agents of Social Change
Seven years ago, in July of 2015, I started an online Facebook group, the Community of Single People, for people who want to discuss every aspect of living single except dating or trying to unsingle themselves. We talk about all sorts of things — our joys and accomplishments, our challenges and frustrations, our observations and our […]
New Report Documents Growing Disapproval of Single Mothers
What do you think of single women raising children on their own – is it a good thing for society, a bad thing, or do you think it doesn’t make much difference? In 2018 and again in 2021, a representative national sample of close to 10,000 adults in the U.S. answered that question. Results showed […]
Want to Share a Rental with Roommates? In Some Places, That’s Illegal
When I was researching my book How We Live Now: Redefining Home and Family in the 21st Century, I asked many people how they would like to live if they could choose any way at all. One popular fantasy was the Golden Girls model – a group of people would all live together under the […]
The Single Professional Women Who Get Promoted Less Often Than Everyone Else
More and more young, talented single women without children are pursuing jobs in business and STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math). They should have it made. Because they are not mothers, they are not at risk for the workplace penalties mothers sometimes face. And because employers may see them (whether accurately or inaccurately) as […]
Clout Isn’t Just about the Number of People in a Group, But the Number Who Personally Know Someone in That Group
I was once interviewed by a reporter writing a cover story for the Washington Post Magazine on people who stay single. I told her that I love being single. It is who I really am. I’m Single at Heart. In the story she wrote, she said that after talking to me, she tried to think […]
Single Women with Disabilities, Part 2: Guest Post by Jill Summerville
This is the 2nd of Jill Summerville’s 2-part article, “Single women with disabilities: A worth universally doubted.” Part 1 is here. A Woman With A Disability Must Be In Want Of A Marriage A Google search for “How can I build my dream girlfriend?” provides so many options that VideoInk actually ranked the best virtual […]
Single Women with Disabilities, Part 1: Guest Post by Jill Summerville
Jill Summerville describes the many ways that single women with disabilities are unfairly disadvantaged. This is Part 1 of 2. Bella’s intro: The experiences and perspectives of people with disabilities have been vastly underrepresented in writings about single people. I am so grateful to Jill Summerville for all she is sharing in her 2-part contribution […]











