Written by: Akshita Pandey, Moitrayee Das
What is profoundly important in the way that society emphasises romantic relationships yet fails to acknowledge friendships, especially those amongst women, is remarkable. Romantic relationships are viewed as the ideal emotional relationship, while friendship is viewed as a temporary form of connection. However, for many women, female friendship is an integral part of their life and one of the most emotionally transformative relationships that they will ever have.
Female friendships are a place where they can feel completely honest and understood; somewhere they can be themselves without having to worry about judgment from others. In a society where women are expected to shoulder a lot of responsibility emotionally and socially, female friendships are vital (Mahale, 2026).
Friendships among women have their place in terms of emotions since such bonds arise due to shared experiences. Women have a common understanding of what society expects of them in terms of their appearance, safety, relationship issues, caregiving role, expectations at work, and emotional burden. It is no surprise then that friendships among women have a natural connection of an emotional nature.
As suggested by an article on Psychology Today, women usually create friendships which allow emotional openness and sharing since their conversations will mostly focus on feelings, insecurity, and other personal issues (Fuller, 2018).
While many social relationships demand that women always appear in control and perfect, friendships between women involve some room for emotional openness. Women talk to each other about their pain, fears, stress, worries, insecurity, loneliness, and exhaustion in ways that they can’t do in other places. Emotional openness is significant as women are usually asked to control themselves or hide their feelings in professional, personal, and romantic realms. It is a space where women can be openly emotional without thinking they’re being too much.
In addition, further research has shown that healthy interpersonal relationships play an essential role in maintaining positive mental and emotional health. Research conducted by Guerrero et al., demonstrates that social connection is a key contributor to emotional regulation, stress management, and psychological wellbeing. Healthy social ties are capable of alleviating the feeling of loneliness and improving stress management capacity.
While the research highlights the general aspect of social connectedness, it clearly emphasises the crucial significance of emotionally supportive friendship ties, particularly among women (Mahale, 2026).
One of the reasons why female friendships are crucial is that women are often asked to engage in emotional labor in their daily activities. It is common for women to be taught to care about other people emotionally, whether at home, work, or even in a romantic relationship (Mahale, 2026). They are supposed to provide nurturing and listening, and be there to soothe the others. On the contrary, female friendships can offer an environment of reciprocity in which women get their turn of being cared for emotionally.
In many ways, friendships among women can also disrupt the belief that romantic love is the pinnacle of intimacy within society. Some of the closest bonds formed by women are with their female friends and not their lovers. The bond between female friends involves seeing one another go through life at various stages.
Female friends stick around through breakups, failed businesses, losses, insecurity, and uncertain times. These types of friendships involve affection as well as loyalty. Unlike romantic relationships, female friendships have the ability to last for decades.
This is especially the case in patriarchal societies wherein women are socialised into prioritising marriage and family relationships over friendships. Research states that friendships between females foster solidarity among individuals who are otherwise isolated and excluded from social circles in various capacities (Mahale, 2026).
Women often find themselves under pressure to engage in a form of rivalry against each other for attention, affirmation, and/or access to resources. However, strong friendships among women challenge such a narrative and instead foster collaborative spaces.
The belief that women are always naturally competitive and mean towards each other is neither true nor beneficial. This notion ignores the deep emotional bond and support present among women in friendship circles. While it is possible for anyone to get into conflict, labeling all women as naturally “catty” diminishes the importance of unity among females.
In actuality, women gain strength and confidence from their female friends and feel supported enough to chase their dreams, remove themselves from toxic environments, ask for help when required, and increase their sense of self-respect.
Female friendships are very important when people are going through transitional phases in their lives. This is because, during young adulthood, for example, there tends to be uncertainty, searching, and a lot of emotional turbulence. Friends often play an important role in providing a sense of stability to people at this stage of their lives.
Whether it is the transition from high school into college or dealing with the anxiety associated with one’s body image or even a break-up with one’s partner, the female friends tend to provide much-needed stability.
However, friendships among women have value not just when it comes to crises. These friendships hold significance in daily life experiences as well. From sharing laughter to having inside jokes, engaging in conversation, going shopping, studying, and just spending time together, all of this creates a feeling of belongingness to shield you from loneliness.
Social networking sites definitely have made things difficult for friendships in many ways. Social networking websites that promote a lifestyle of comparisons and perfection can bring about feelings of insecurity. Women are often confronted with perfect pictures of achievement, beauty, relationships, and happiness, which only serve to increase feelings of self-doubt.
Nevertheless, true friendships between women continue to exist despite all this superficiality because of their basis on emotion and not appearance. Friendship lies in emotions, in the honesty and consistency of those emotions.
The topic of academic studies on women’s friendships has been no exception to pointing out its relevance to society and emotional support. Research has found out how women’s friendships play an important role as caring relations, emotional exchange, and formation of identity (Guerrero et al., 2022). Women’s friendships cannot be viewed as something insignificant that just happens in their lives. Such friendships are actively engaged in maintaining women psychologically, socially, and emotionally.
Considering the increasing awareness around loneliness in the world, the importance of women’s friendships becomes more relevant. Even in an age where technology has brought people closer than ever before, many still feel emotionally lonely. Modern women face immense pressure on multiple fronts, including work life and domestic life. In such a situation, friendships serve as places of solace and empathy.
What’s more important, friendships amongst females give a woman the possibility to have the freedom not to live up to her societal role. The societal role for a woman is quite heavy and requires that she performs several roles at once, that of a daughter, partner, caregiver, employee, and sometimes even of a mother.
Maybe the strength of women’s friendship lies in its constant understatement. It may not be dramatic or spectacular at times, but it will influence lives significantly. It is made up of memories, learning, sadness, joy, and endurance. For many women, there will come a point in their lives where their female friends’ support would have had a dramatic effect on their emotional well-being.
Despite being a culture that puts romantic love on top of everything else, there is still an underestimation of how valuable the connections between females really are. They are fundamental emotional ties, which enable women to thrive amidst the struggles that come their way in life. Through female friendships, women find solidarity in their isolation, empathy in their moments of pain, and solace in uncertain times. Perhaps most important of all, through these friendships, women get reminded that they are loved regardless of whatever else the world wants from them.
References
Fuller, K. (2018, August 16). The Importance of Female Friendships Among Women. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/happiness-is-state-mind/201808/the-importance-female-friendships-among-women
Guerrero, M., Longan, C., Cummings, C., Kassanits, J., Reilly, A., Stevens, E., & Jason, L. A. (2022). Women’s friendships: A basis for individual-level resources and their connection to power and optimism. The Humanistic Psychologist, 50(3), 360–375. https://doi.org/10.1037/hum0000295
Mahale, A. (2026, May 26). The absolute necessity of female friendships. The Hindu. https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/the-absolute-necessity-of-female-friendships/article71026562.ece
Akshita Pandey is an undergraduate student at FLAME University, and Moitrayee Das is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at FLAME University.