Gender Differences Between Men And Women's Friendships

The differences between men and women’s friendships were explored for a long time. Men and women historically differ from each other in various aspects. They differ from biological, sociological, psychological, physical and other points of view. The research of this topic is essential for sociologists and psychologists. Gender differences in patterns of friendship show the way of female and male’s communications, their attitude to friendship, their sociological point of view and psychological features. In addition, Schmeiser (2017) claims that these differences also affect marriage rates. She also argues that they affect the presence of friends. According to the study of Brigham Young University (n.d.), the lack of friends may lead to premature

According to Felmlee and Muraco (2009), “friendships represent highly salient social bonds in our society” (p.318). Everyone has or had at least one friend with whom they spend time together, share secrets and other information and cheer up the mood. Furthermore, friendship is a state of complete trust, confidence, understanding and support (Felmlee & Muraco, 2009; Caldwell & Peplau, 1982). Nowadays humanity may make friends in different ways. People meet friends at kindergarten, school, work, cinema, parks and even via Internet. Today two types of friendship in patterns of gender exist: same-sex friendship and cross-sex friendship. Nevertheless, researchers are still finding the data about the existence of cross-gender friendship. The same-gender friends play important role in individuals’ lives and society in general (Bukowski, Newcomb, & Hartup, 1996, as cited in Zarbatany, Conley, & Pepper, 2004). Levine (2016) argues that these friends help to overcome difficulties, benefit in terms of psychological and physical health, give experience and guide in some life cases and teach something new. Hence, it is essential to have the same-sex

Roy, Benenson and Lilly (2000) have found that men and women have no differences in terms of quantity of friends. Moreover, they similarly spend time with friends (Roy, Benenson, & Lilly, 2000; Hall, 2011). According to Bank and Hansford (2000) and Linden-Andersen (2009), “perceived similarity, intimacy and support are equally related to friendship satisfaction for females and males” (as cited in Helgeson, 2016, p. 331). Additionally, Hall (2011) claims that female and male are equally likely to share similar activities with