Dr. Naomi Gerstel, Professor of Sociology and former CRF Family Research Scholar ('03-'04), talks about Single and Unmarried Americans As Family and Community Members in this fact sheet prepared for the Council on Contemporary Families in honor of Unmarried and Singles Week, September 18-24.  Unmarried and singles' week celebrates the lives of many Americans.

In 2010, this group included 99.6 million people -- close to half (43.6 percent) of U.S. residents 18 and older. Over their life course, many more people will move in and out of this group. She notes that “the unmarried are typically portrayed as unencumbered by family obligations, or even as self-centered individuals who do not help out in the community the way married couples do”, but the truth is quite different.  For all of her findings, please read the fact sheet here.

As a Family Research Scholar, Dr. Gerstel and Dr. Dan Clawson, Professor of Sociology and Family Research Scholar ('03-'04), developed proposals to study the ways work hours are shaped by organizations, occupations, unions and families. The National Science Foundation funded two of their proposals, NAEMT funded a third, and the Sloan Foundation funded a fourth. Dr. Gerstel has also been a visiting scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation and her research has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the National Academy of Science.

The Council on Contemporary Families is a non-profit, non-partisan organization of family researchers, mental health and social practitioners, and clinicians dedicated to providing the press and public with the latest research and best practice findings about American families.