This feels a bit like saying that subtraction is partial because it always treats its first argument as positive and its second as negative. It's important to

This feels a bit like saying that subtraction is partial because it always treats its first argument as positive and its second as negative. It's important to be aware of the asymmetry in the Gale-Shapley algorithm (and i wasn't - thank you), and to not accidentally (or intentionally!) use it in an unfair way. But if someone does, it is they who have introduced the partiality, not the algorithm. PS It seems there are at least two algorithms for solving the stable marriage problem equitably, one given in this paper, and one it mentions given by Knuth and attributed to Selkow: https://epubs.siam.org/doi/10.1137/0216010 https://epubs.siam.org/doi/10.1137/0216010