Marital status in CV – types. Should I write in my CV?

Marital status in your CV is unnecessary information. Married, married, divorced – these data do not apply to work and cannot be taken into account in recruitment. Why?

In this article, we will explain the reasons why listing your marital status on your CV may be detrimental to your success in recruiting. You will see that it is not only a matter of changing the customs and rules of writing a CV but also the law.

The employer cannot ask about your marital status and require this information in your CV

Asking about your marital status is inappropriate. It shouldn’t fall during an interview. The employer cannot require candidates and employees to provide information about their marital status.

The Labor Code says the same. The legislator points out that every person at work has the right to equal treatment, regardless of sex, age, disability, race, religion, nationality, political beliefs – in a word: in work and recruitment, only your professional competencies are important, not private matters.

Therefore, your marital status cannot have any influence on whether you are hired or not. Proposal? You do not need to add this information to your CV.

A CV is a first and most important step in the recruitment process. At this stage, the most important information is your professional experience, skills, and education. Whether you have a husband or wife or live alone does not affect your competencies in the workplace.

This is why you should omit information on marital status in your CV and write in this place other important details, e.g., adding a section on courses, training, language certificates to the CV. Writing in a CV about marital status is a waste of valuable space and attention of the recruiter.

Marital status in CVs and dangerous stereotypes

Some people enter their marital status in their CVs – after all, it is not forbidden. The only question is: what for? There are at least several reasons to spare the employer such knowledge.

First, information about your marital status does not add any benefit to your CV. Second, it carries the risk of being stereotyped, which will reduce your employability. Stereotypes are bad, harmful, and biased, but unfortunately, they exist and affect all spheres of our life – including work.

Marital status married, after divorce, single?

Research shows that married women are hired less frequently than married men. They also say that a married woman is an inefficient worker in the eyes of her employer. That’s not all – it turns out that bosses expect a man who has a wife to be more devoted to work than a bachelor.

These examples are saddening and show the power of unverified beliefs. Therefore, it is better to avoid such troubles in advance.

Marital status married or maybe single?

Don’t even think about which transcript to add to your curriculum vitae. Among the hundreds of apps out of which it’s really hard to choose the best one, it’s extremely easy to dismiss the questionable one. And the truth is, information about your marital status on your CV can be considered a very old-fashioned approach to recruiting.

Data on marital status, children, and place of residence even appeared in ID cards. Today that is a thing of the past, but unfortunately, the stereotypes still exist. Here is an example:

Accounting applications sent in response to a job advertisement have been tested. Score? The CVs of married women with children and a skin color other than white were rejected. This again leads to the conclusion that the marital status in the CV is redundant information and may provoke unfavorable decisions by recruiters.

Besides, the truth is that a short CV for work is better than a lengthy, over-informative document. A CV for one or two pages is completely enough and it is better if you use every free space on the sheet for information of a professional nature.

Marital status – types and examples

This knowledge may be useful to you in circumstances other than recruitment, for example when dealing with tax, insurance, social or other matters that are needed to obtain a loan.

Legal marital status – types:

Now you know how to properly speak and write about your marital status. You also know that this should not be done on your CV. Your CV must be a thoughtful, elegant, easy-to-read, and understandable document.