Single communities are flourishing

The internet and social media have many downsides, but they also provide invaluable space for previously marginalised communities to connect online. Single women are no exception, and a new world of groups, forums and podcasts – DePaulo recommends Lucy Meggeson’s Spinsterhood Reimagined – are enhancing happiness.

“In 2015, I started the Community of Single People Facebook group ,” says DePaulo. “It now has about 9,500 members from more than 100 nations. We talk about everything relevant to single life except dating or trying to escape being single.”

Men have more to gain from relationships

Hoan and MacDonald theorise that men “have more to gain from partnering than do single women”, especially now that more and more women don’t need to rely on men for financial support. In short, they say, factors including “inequitable divisions of household labour and the deprioritisation of women’s sexual pleasure” tend to mean committed heterosexual relationships come with “more rewards for men and more costs for women”.

These observations echo Dolan’s viral comments from 2019, in which he said that unmarried and childless women are the happiest segment of society. At the time, Dolan summed up the science thus: “If you’re a man, you should probably get married; if you’re a woman, don’t bother.” Which seems like a pretty good response the next time an interfering relative asks why you’re “still” single this Christmas.

The surprising science behind why single women are happier