Ever since the book came out, I've received feedback about how it's made women think about friendships throughout their lives, as well as who is in their lives now. The goal of this blog is to open up and create a dialogue about friendships: the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Each week I will post my thoughts, experiences, as well as various articles, topics or quotes that I feel are important when examining female friendships. Please feel free to leave comments; I look forward to hearing from you!

Email me: survivingfemalefriendships@gmail.com

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Tuesday, November 10, 2015

The Power of Femship

Femship...that's right, ladies.  Here's a term you need to start using with your best friends.  I came across a fantastic article that explores positive benefits of female friendship...er, femship: Women With Strong Female Friendships Have a Surprising Advantage Over The Rest of Us by Elizabeth Plank.

An excerpt from the article:
"Having each other's backs makes women unstoppable. The femship might be key to providing women with the critical mass they need to reach parity with men. "Female friendship helps women get the upper hand in the world," Sklar explained. "It's advantageous for me when my bestie does well. Not only does it make me look good that I'm hanging out with a baller, or shall I say an egger, but it also increases my own sense of opportunity because the opportunities for me improve, too."

She's right. When women work together, they also succeed together. So although we love to snack on slideshows of Beyoncé and Jay Z's latest tropical vacation while we impatiently await Amal and George Clooney's impending world domination, the thought of seeing more female friendship pop in our newsfeeds should make us giddy. Celebrating friendship, rather than competition, between women will help the next generation of women embrace, rather than resent, the strong women around them. In a world still ridden with gender inequality, femships may be the game-changer we've been waiting for. Cheers a Big Mac with your bestie to that."

Women are shown in the media as either in competition with each other or fighting over a man.  That's not so accurate in reality.  Plank shows pictures of femships, such as Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, Serena Williams and Caroline Wozniacki, as well as Nicki Minaj and Beyonce.  These are some great femship role models that exhibit healthy friendships, as well as healthy competition.

When we're around strong women, it encourages us to become stronger as well.  We learn to work together for a common goal and to push each other to become our best selves.  Behold, the femship!