Rise Of The Faux Singletons

Would you lie about your relationship status to get ahead at work? These women do. Shari Nementzik finds out why.

- Shari Nementzik

‘I WAS TOLD that I was a shoo-in for a promotion at my accounting firm,’ says Angela*, 29. ‘My boss had even started filling in the paperwork, and I’d 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 easy to see why a new breed of career women is 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 or that they’re about to get married, and holding off on having kids in fear that they won’t be promoted or enjoy the same level of success,’ says Bianca Mazzarella, an employment lawyer with the firm McDonald Murholme.