The first article I ever published about single people was an op-ed in the New York Times, “Sex and the Single Voter,” in 2004. I mocked the condescending ways the media, the pollsters, and both parties were talking about single people – especially the single women.

The U.S. is notorious for its failure to guarantee paid family leave for all workers. At the end of 2019, though, some progress was made on behalf of people who work for the federal government. A new law was passed that will give civilian employees of the federal government paid leave after the birth, adoption, […]

Among the many goals of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was expanded Medicaid coverage. In theory, adults with incomes up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level would be eligible to be covered. Pre-ACA standards were more stringent and excluded non-disabled adults with no dependent children. Medicaid expansion was supposed to be a mandatory […]

New York Times columnists Thomas B. Edsall and Ross Douthat believe that (some) liberals have already conceded that conservatives were right: We should value marriage over all other life paths and family forms.

In a recent speech, Attorney General Barr decried “illegitimacy,” “licentiousness,” and “the wreckage of the family.”

Some stories about single people are manufactured to scare them. Others, though, capture legitimate concerns. For example, if you are single and live alone, what are you going to do if and when you get to the point where you need help with everyday life tasks, such a bathing, eating, or getting around?

Did you have at your fingertips – or even in the deep recesses of your mind – the answer to the question in the title of this article? Did you know that Donald Trump has five kids from three marriages? And if you didn’t know that, why didn’t you?

The number of single women in the U.S. has been increasing markedly. Their growing numbers, together with their very disproportionate support for Democratic candidates, should, in theory, make them a potentially powerful political force. But as a new study has shown, single women are not even taken seriously by the 471 women’s organizations that should […]

The bias against single people that I call “singlism” is pervasive. The stereotyping, stigmatizing, and marginalizing of single people, and the discrimination against them, shows up in the workplace, the marketplace, the classroom, and the boardroom; in politics, the military, and in the laws of the land; in places of worship, in psychotherapy, and in […]

What are some of the terrible things that can happen in your life? At a scholarly talk that I attended, the speaker had a slide that offered some answers. They included, for example, contracting a deadly disease, killing yourself, not being able to find employment, and…not ever getting married.