Marriage and civil partnership

The Equality Act

Marriage and civil partnerships are one of nine protected characteristics under the Equality Act. The Equality Act 2010 states that you must not be treated less favourably if you are married or in a civil partnership, and people in civil partnerships should not be treated less favourably than those who are married.

People do not have this characteristic if they are:

• single,
• living with someone as a couple, but not married nor civil partners,
• engaged to be married,
• widowed,
• divorced or a person whose civil partnership has been dissolved.

Discrimination

Discrimination based on marriage or civil partnership happens when someone is treated badly because they are married. Now that marriage and civil partnerships are both accessible for same-sex and opposite-sex couples, discrimination at work against people who were in civil partnerships is less common than it used to be. Workplace discrimination against both married people and those in civil partnerships happens but, thankfully, discrimination cases are rare.

Relationship discrimination

In academia, ‘relationship status discrimination’ may exist in the hiring process, particularly for women. The ‘two body problem’ captures the challenge faced by couples in finding academic positions in the same geographical area, particularly at the start of their careers. Finding one position is often difficult enough, let alone two. This can lead to couples having to choose whether one pursues a role while the other takes a job in a different area, or to live apart in order to both have roles that will progress their careers. They may need to choose to uproot and move to new cities or countries, selling their home and moving their families in order to find jobs but again this can come at the expense of their partner who may not find a relevant role. Couples with children may need to decide that one member of the couple will financially provide for the family whilst pursuing their career and the other will help look after the family and their home, whilst working a less demanding role or seeking part-time work.

A study of hiring practices at one US university suggested that decisions were influenced by the relationship status of women, but not men. This appeared to be due to pervading gender stereotypes, where men are seen as the main breadwinner, and so are less likely to move and follow a woman when she receives a job offer. Women who were judged less ‘moveable’ were less successful across the hiring process, but men were not viewed in the recruitment processes in the same way, with their partners being seen as moveable. It’s interesting that in this study, the university policy was to actively diversify the academic community, and search committees were aware of this. However, individual biases and conversations still influenced final decisions.

What actions can we all take? As a researcher, research enabler or leader in research

• Understand your unconscious bias. Make sure that you have completed unconscious bias training – many universities offer this. Training will raise your awareness of unconscious bias, the different forms it can take, where it might occur and how to help you overcome it. Don’t make assumptions based on someone’s marital status.

What additional actions can you take as a leader in research?

• Don’t make assumptions around individuals and their relationships. For example:
  • Don’t assume that someone with a partner working elsewhere won’t take a job if it’s offered or let this bias your hiring decisions.
  • Don’t assume that someone newly married is about to start thinking about starting a family and therefore exclude them from conversations and considerations around promotions and career development.
• Ignore information you have on relationship status. This should be the case for candidates at all stages of the recruitment process – do not let this factor into your decision-making.

Throughout this page we have linked to articles, studies and books which you can explore to increase your understanding of marriage and civil partnership discrimination. You may also wish to check out our page about Allyship to help understand the various ways that we can be an ally to support our colleagues and students.

We recognise that not everyone has the same learning styles, so to complement some of the written information and resources listed throughout this section, below there are a range of resource recommendations to engage with.

You can also check out our EDI Toolkit Reading List on the library’s EDI page for a summary of books to engage with around the protected characteristics.

Blogs and short articles

• On ‘poor husbands’ and two-body problems – Kelly Baker
• The two-body problem and us – Kelly and Chris Baker
• Trailing spouse academics ‘face pay discrimination’

Peer-reviewed papers

• When two bodies are (not) a problem: gender and relationship status discrimination in academic hiring – Rivera, 2017
• Career Paths with a Two-Body Problem: Occupational Specialization and Geographic Mobility - Rueda and Wilemme, 2021

Feeds to follow

• @Mothersinsci 

Below you will find a list of services and resources available to colleagues and students at Newcastle University. You may find it useful to be aware of these either for yourself or to direct members of your team to.

Policies

There is a Personal Relationships at Work Policy which requires colleagues to inform us of a relationship that could impact work.

Training courses and workshops

You can access training on the Learning Management System (LMS) for Overcoming Unconscious Bias (ncl login required).

Newcastle University Annual EDI Report

Within Newcastle’s ‘Annual EDI Report’, the University reports on the colleague demographic in terms of the nine protected characteristics. For example, within the 2022 report, it notes that 27.1% of colleagues were recorded as married, 24.9% single and we had no recorded information for 48.1% of colleagues.