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By Suzanne Blake
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Nearly all women say they are done with situationships, according to a new Hint App survey.
The Hint App report, based on responses from more than 3,400 women aged 23 to 45, found 82 percent said they’re finished with “situationships” or emotionally unclear romantic arrangements.
Why It Matters
Dating culture has been a source of frustration for women and men alike, with women often complaining about the low quality of matches on dating apps and men often reporting very little matches at all.
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The rise of situationships over clear cut labels in relationships has also blurred the lines for many, causing reduced satisfaction in dating life for many.
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What To Know
In addition to the overwhelming majority of women who said they are leaving situationships behind, 68 percent said they had recently entered at least one relationship they would characterize as “emotionally misaligned.”
"The finding that 82 percent of young women say they are finished with situationships reflects a decisive cultural shift in dating," Leigh Roberts, PR manager for Hint App, told Newsweek. "What we are seeing is not just frustration with ambiguous arrangements, but a broader redefinition of intimacy. Women are increasingly unwilling to outsource clarity to partners and are instead insisting on self-assessment before entering relationships."
More singles today may be ready to reject relationship set ups that don’t fit their emotional needs, as 71 percent reported increased confidence in declining mismatched advances, and 48 percent say they avoided entering a situationship altogether in the three months that followed.
A prior survey from BLK, a dating app for the Black community, discovered many women were giving up sexual relationships entirely, with 64 percent of Black Gen Z women saying they were celibate. And a significant chunk, 63 percent, of those women said they have chosen celibacy relatively recently, in just the last six months.
There have long been differences in how men and women navigate dating culture and dating apps, including whether they view situationships as harmful or helpful as well as what sort of traits matter most when deciding to swipe right or left.
A recent League dating app survey found that while women said career ambition matters when deciding to match with someone at 73 percent, only 38 percent of men said the same.
What People Are Saying
Roberts told Newsweek: "This rejection of situationships suggests that dating culture is moving away from tolerance of uncertainty as the norm. Historically, ambiguity has often been normalized as part of the modern dating script, disproportionately leaving women to manage the emotional fallout. Hint’s data shows that women are no longer willing to carry that burden. They are reframing dating as a process of choice rooted in self-knowledge, rather than as a reactive search for validation."
Kirill Liakh, managing director for Hint App, told Newsweek: "Women are sending a clear message: clarity comes first. At Hint, we see this not as a retreat from dating, but as a restructuring of its foundations. Emotional readiness, cycle alignment, and clarity of wants are becoming the new entry points to intimacy. That shift holds the potential to redefine gender expectations and normalize intentional choice as the standard in relationships.”
What Happens Next
Rejecting situationships could point to shifting gender norms, according to Roberts.
"It positions emotional readiness and boundary-setting as prerequisites, not luxuries, which in turn may recalibrate how future relationships are initiated and sustained," Roberts said.
"Overall, this is a positive development. By stepping away from situationships, women are not opting out of intimacy, but opting into intentionality. They are normalizing discernment and reshaping the cultural narrative around relationships as something built on reflection and alignment, not just momentum."
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