GIRLHOOD- The Importance of Women Friendships, Relationships and Community
Reflecting on Summer 2023 it being named “The Summer of Girlhood”, we can look at what common themes took place a year ago this time. The booming business of singer Taylor Swift and her Eras Tour featuring girls trading friendship bracelets, complimenting each other’s outfits, and belting out to their favourite songs, to the Barbie Movie bringing in $1.446 billion in gross sales, it was a big year for girlhood. Numerous social media trends with phrases like “I’m Just a Girl” and quotes of “How I love being a Woman” featuring feminine clothing, hobbies, and activities done with friends took the stage and continued to embrace the message of girlhood and female relationships. These themes have continued within the past year, with trends like “girl dinner”, supporting women-founded businesses, and more. Messages of the female community are important beyond the media but in various aspects of the business world. Having women's friendships, relationships, and community is key for women of all ages to have, to have a support system that provides mentorship, and collaboration, creates work-life balance, and breaks barriers of gender inequality.
Having connections with other women in the workplace community is a remarkable opportunity for creating relationships for friendships, mentorships, or even a support system.
Although we may have existing relationships like these, finding someone in your workplace you connect with at a level beyond work can be extremely beneficial and rewarding. Finding female friendships by bonding over hobbies, activities or even something simple like a TV show provides a chance to connect beyond work and allows you to showcase your personality and who you are. It allows a personal relationship to form, and you will have someone you know you can talk to comfortably. Finding women you admire in your workplace is also a wonderful opportunity for inspiration and mentorship. When having a connection with someone’s work and impact you admire, it can turn into a mentorship, as well as motivation. Hearing someone’s story on their work and purpose helps to grow and sustain a friendship to more aspects besides personal interests, but also to what drives you and excites you about your work. This combination of relationships with both personal and professional elements helps you to have a support system with female relationships you can confide in and know will help you in your goals and matters. It’s extremely beneficial to know you have relationships like these to rely on, and that you don’t feel alone. As well as having a safe space, where you believe, you can go to these women for support, mentorship, and guidance for working through opportunities.
A sense of community also opens room for collaboration between women. The saying “two brains are better than one” is a phrase that can be taken very literally in this sense. When having conflicts or problems that need to be resolved, having two people figure out the solution can be a lot more efficient and effective than just one person doing all the work themselves. So having a community of women you feel like you can go to collaborate is immensely important. These could be women in your family, a mother, sister, aunt, cousin. Whoever it may be, it is important that you feel safe talking to them and believe they could provide advice. You take comfort in knowing you have their support and feel that considering their advice could help you to find a solution. Even if the feedback they give you is not exactly a solution, the relationship you have may be enough for you to come to the resolution on your own. These community relationships can extend past your family, to even friends, co-workers, classmates, or other colleagues. Having a variety of people in your community can help diversify the advice you receive, with different people having different situations, experiences, and ideas. As well as it allows you to have people to confide in, in the various aspects of life. You'll know you have support in your work life, social life, and personal life. Especially in a workplace environment, having women that uplift each other and provide support to each other through various challenges, can work towards enhancing professional growth. This community goes beyond solving problems but helps you to thrive in an environment with people who you feel support you.
With all the chaos and tiring hours that come with work, having a work-life balance is key to maintaining stabilization between all your commitments. Often, people tend to get caught up in the stress work brings; upcoming due dates, countless projects, and working with a variety of people you may or may not get along with, it often feels like a never-ending cycle. To remove yourself from the so-called “hamster wheel”, take the time to continue your friendships and relationships outside work. The community you have outside of work may get underprioritized when times get busy, but it is equally important to have a life outside of work. Strong female friendships contribute to maintaining a healthy work-life balance, offering a support system outside of professional obligations. These would be people you can connect with outside of work to remind you that there’s more to life beyond work. Although they might be able to give you advice on your work conflicts or struggles to professional success, they are also good people to spend time with and take a break. It is important to remember to take breaks recharge your mind before burnout, and work on your own goals. Female friendships can provide advice and support on your personal goals such as hobbies, activities, or anything else that contributes to who you are. They may be people you confide in for advice on finding things you enjoy outside work and who you are as a person without your profession. It is easy to forget who we are beyond our work and school lives, so taking the time to spend with females who can help us with this is extremely beneficial. It can be simple things like going for a walk or getting a drink at a cafe that can help us reroot our values, our minds, and the things that make us happy. A female community that works towards uplifting one another to have lives outside of work is something that would create more balance, guidance, and support, and work towards the development of girlhood.
Lastly, looking at women's communities can work towards the breaking of barriers of gender inequality. Especially with business being a male-dominated industry, finding females to build a safe space community can help share experiences, challenges, and strategies without judgment. It is important to acknowledge you don’t need to compete with these women, but instead use it as an opportunity for transforming competition into collaboration. Focusing on collaboration and what you can conquer as a team rather than individually, leads to overall success for more members and helps to embrace inclusivity. The gender barrier and inequality are built off the idealizations of men and do not account for the diversity in experiences that many women can offer. Differences are not embraced and may be frowned upon, with women receiving fewer opportunities, pay, or even benefits compared to the men in their companies. Therefore, there is an importance of strengthening women’s friendships and networks, to contribute to the broader movement for gender equality in business. It is important to acknowledge the community as well as the resources available.
With the rise of social media marketing and other trends that can go viral in seconds, women's communities are continuing to evolve and are providing women opportunities to connect with others all over the world. The strengthening of female friendships expands out to communities built all over the world, with women connecting on things they can relate to. Women can find others they confide in, help grow their professional network, and grow personally and professionally with the support of other women. Girlhood continues to grow and will not be stopping any time soon.
