Journal | Female Friendship
Why Female Friendship Needs a Map
KATE REED | FEMALE FRIENDSHIP | JUNE 2026
Over many years of sitting in circles with women, in living rooms and retreat spaces, around kitchen tables and campfires, online and in person, across seasons of life, cultures and generations, I have had the privilege of listening as women entrust me with their stories.
In these spaces, we share our joys and disappointments, our successes and challenges, our hard won wisdom and our grief.... Read More...
What We Carry Into Friendship
KATE REED | FEMALE FRIENDSHIP | JULY 2026
We are raised on a simplified story of female friendship.A softened image in which sisterhood is effortless, loyalty is unquestioned and connection requires no skill, tending or repair.
When friendship between women is not idealised, it is often portrayed at the opposite extreme: rivalry, cliques, betrayal and drama. A spectacle that fuels entertainment and social commentary while leaving many women confused or wounded.
Both portrayals flatten the truth. They reduce women to caricatures and collapse a vast relational landscape into narrow scripts... Read More...
When Her Friendship Pain Awakens Your Own
KATE REED | FEMALE FRIENDSHIP | AUGUST 2026
There are few things harder for a mother than watching her daughter experience pain she cannot take away.
When that pain comes through friendship, exclusion, betrayal, changing loyalties or the sudden withdrawal of someone she trusted, it can reach deeply into us.
Supporting our daughters through the changing landscape of female friendship can be tough... Read More...
Why the Relationships Between Women Matter Beyond the Personal
KATE REED | FEMALE FRIENDSHIP | AUGUST 2026
What happens between women does not remain contained within individual friendships.
The relational field we create together extends into our families, workplaces, communities and collective endeavours. It influences how we collaborate, how we share power, how we respond to difference and what becomes possible when women gather around something that matters.
When relationships between women feel stable and trustworthy, ideas can be offered more freely. Responsibility can be shared. Difference can be tolerated without threatening belonging. Women can bring their full intelligence, creativity and capacity into the room... Read More...