• Singled Out: Single Parent Discrimination and What to Do About It
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Singled Out: Single Parent Discrimination and What to Do About It

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In this powerful exposé, single parent campaigner and policy expert Ruth Talbot weaves together statistics, real life stories and policy analysis to reveal the true extent of single parent discrimi...
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  • 01 January 2027
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In this powerful exposé, single parent campaigner and policy expert Ruth Talbot weaves together statistics, real life stories and policy analysis to reveal the true extent of single parent discrimination in Britain today.

Drawing on new research, interviews and her own lived experience, Talbot demonstrates how single parent discrimination is widespread. She reveals how it shapes access to housing, employment, childcare and social security, driving poverty, social exclusion and poorer mental health. Talbot also highlights how mutual support and single parent activism is changing the narrative, building solidarity and securing change. She explores how organisations can – and must - embrace and support these movements.

Offering clear, practical recommendations for legal, regulatory and policy reform, including the long-overdue case for recognising single parents as a protected characteristic under the Equality Act, this is essential reading for all those concerned with improving the lives of single parents and their children.

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Price: $29.95
Pages: 256
Publisher: Bristol University Press
Imprint: Policy Press
Publication Date: 01 January 2027
ISBN: 9781447378068
Format: Paperback
BISACs: SOCIAL SCIENCE / Poverty & Homelessness, Social discrimination and social justice, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Public Policy / Social Services & Welfare, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / Marriage & Family, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Women's Studies, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Children's Studies, Sociology: family, kinship and relationships, Welfare and benefit systems, Separation and divorce / Breaking up: advice, topics and issues
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"Single parents are too often ignored, undermined, and scapegoated in British society. The reality is that they are doing work that is essential to a well-functioning society, while receiving barely any support in return. That is why voices like Ruth’s matter so deeply. She is a fierce, powerful advocate for single parents, and we are so lucky to have her leading this fight.” Joeli Brearley, founder of Pregnant then Screwed

“Essential reading for those wishing to understand the lived experiences and social positioning of single parents in the UK and elsewhere.” Mary Daly, University of Oxford (Emerita)

Ruth Talbot is a senior policy and research manager on child poverty at Save the Children UK. A single parent to three children, she is a passionate campaigner for the rights of single parents. She founded the campaign group Single Parent Rights where she researched single parent discrimination and has given evidence to the Work and Pensions Select Committee.

1. Single parentism: hidden in plain sight

2. Single parent stigma: the bedrock of single parentism

3. One born every minute: single parents in the UK

4. Intersectionality and single parentism

5. Single parent legal protections: the case for reform

6. Social security and single parentism

7. Parental leave and single parentism

8. Childcare and single parentism

9. Employment and single parentism

10. Housing and single parentism

11. Engaging single parents: beyond the tickbox

12. Single parent activists: driving change

13. Tackling single parentism