Introduction

If you aren’t married and don’t have kids, people at work might assume a lot of things: that you can stay late at the office, that you can’t possibly understand their stories about parenthood, that you just haven’t found the right partner (ugh). But those assumptions are often false. Single childless women have busy lives, close relationships with children like nieces or nephews — and many don’t want coupledom or motherhood.

We talk to two women who’ve been researching and writing about being a single childless professional. The writer Shani Silver shares her experience with the career pros and cons, and then Tracy Dumas, a professor at Ohio State University, gives research-backed advice for responding to bias and unrealistic expectations.

Our HBR reading list:

• “The Average Mid-Forties Male College Graduate Earns 55% More Than His Female Counterparts,” by Erling Barth, Claudia Goldin, Sari Pekkala Kerr, and Claudia Olivetti
• “How Managers Can Be Fair About Flexibility for Parents and Non-Parents Alike,” by Joan C. Williams and Marina Multhaup
• “The Ambition-Marriage Trade-Off Too Many Single Women Face,” by Leonardo Bursztyn, Thomas Fujiwara, and Amanda Pallais