Special Issue:
Women's Friendships

This special issue of Feminist Studies presents an eclectic view of women’s friendships from across Western history and from several different cultures. Several of the articles question whether identity or sameness is a prerequisite for friendship and ask what friendships across difference look like, including charting the difficulties of making and sustaining such friendships. The articles in this issue contrast the variety and functions of women’s friendships with the narcissistic masculinist ideals of classical Western thought about friendship in which friends serve as reflections of a person—typically a male and upper-class person. The authors in this issue present women’s friendships that are more pragmatic and more vulnerable and that contend more fully with difference. Some authors reflect on the high expectations placed on friendship within Second Wave feminism in the United States, noting how competition and feelings of betrayal can suffuse friendships; others trace more autonomous, productive, and forgiving contemporary visions of friendship.

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Susan Van Dyne
“Abracadabra”: Intimate Inventions by Early College Women in the United States
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Harriet Bjerrum Nielsen
Young Women’s Friendships across Three Generations:
Insights from Norway
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Ivy Schweitzer
Making Equals: Classical Philia and Women’s Friendship
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Alexandra Verini
Medieval Models of Female Friendship in Christine de Pizan’s
The Book of the City of Ladies and Margery Kempe’s The Book of Margery Kempe
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Sarah Jane Cervenak
Like Blood or Blossom: Wangechi Mutu’s Resistant Harvests
(Art Essay)
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Nancy K. Miller
Elegiac Friendship: Notes on Loss
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Judith Taylor
Beyond “Obligatory Camaraderie”: Girls’ Friendship
in Zadie Smith’s NW and Jillian and Mariko Tamaki’s Skim
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Judith Kegan Gardiner
“Women’s Friendships, Feminist Friendships (Review Essay)
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Richa Nagar with Özlem Aslan, Nadia Z. Hasan, Omme-Salma Rahemtullah, Nishant Upadhyay, and Begüm Uzun
Feminisms, Collaborations, Friendships: A Conversation
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Nadine Naber and Dalia Abd El-Hameed
Attacks on Feminists in Egypt: The Militarization of Public Space and Accountable Solidarity (News and Views)
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Orlando: Observances (News and Views)
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Creative Work

Stephanie Han
The Body Politic, 1982 (Short Story)
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Back Cover Art

Christine de Pizan before the personifications of Rectitude, Reason, and Justice in her study, while, outside, the ladies build the city. London, British Library, Harley 4431 (ca. 1410–1414). Courtesy of the British Library.