Rise Of The Faux Singletons

- Shari Nementzik

‘I WAS TOLD that I was a shoe-in for a promotion at my accounting firm,’ says Sydney based Angela*, 29. ‘My boss had even started filling in the paperwork and I had already taken on some of the extra responsibilities. But then I announced my engagement. From that day on, there was no more talk of my promotion. I found out three weeks later that a male colleague, who was more junior, got the role.’

When you hear stories like Angela’s, it’s little wonder a new breed of career women are climbing up the ranks – the ‘faux singletons’: women who pretend to be single to get ahead in the workplace. ‘Women are concealing that they’re in relationships, that they’re about to get married, and holding off on having kids in fear they won’t be promoted or won’t enjoy the same level of success,’ explains Bianca Mazzarella, an employment lawyer with Melbourne firm McDonald Murholme.

A recent Cosmo survey found that 1 in 4 women think they’ve been overlooked for a job or promotion due to their relationship status†.