Female bonding

Female bonding is the formation of a close personal relationship between women. Female bonding is a term that is used in ethology, social science, and in general usage to describe patterns of friendship, attachment, and cooperation in women; or in the case of ethology, associations between females of various species. The exact meaning of the term differs across contexts.

Overview

In ethology, a species is said to have female bonding if the females regularly form coalitions in which they mutually support each other, especially if such coalitions are used to attack other groups or individuals.

Female animals such as chimpanzees and humans occasionally participate in raiding groups that kill others, but are normally a minority in a coalition that is composed mostly of males.

In the context of human relationships, female bonding is used to describe friendship between women, or the way in which women befriend each other. The expression is sometimes used synonymously with the word camaraderie. Friendships among women are stereotypically based not only on shared activities, as with men's friendship, but also on emotional sharing.