Do women in your area support each other or is it isolating?

[Leteer]

I've lived abroad quite a bit and what I've noticed in some places a strong sisterhood where a woman bring eachother up and support them.

In the UK, What's the sisterhood like your area? Is it good? It is none existent?Are the women in your area more about control/ self serving/ individual interests or do they bring eachother up? Is there a known supportive community for women in your area or is it isolating?

Well, I say hello to my (female) neighbours and ask after their kids, and we chat about this and that, and take in each other's parcels, but that's about as far as it goes ... Not sure I'd want much more than that

I’m English. We don’t do talking to neighbours. We’re famous for it.

an Englishwoman’s home is her castle and all that

It’s not a binary choice as your post suggests. Yes i have friends - no, I don’t need a ‘sisterhood’. Frankly if someone expected me to act in that way just because they happened to be a neighbour I would run a mile.

This is an odd question, what women are you talking about. Women can’t support women they don’t know, if you’re part of a group it will depend on the individuals in the group. If you mean friends then again it depends on the invidudals,

women are individuals, you need to know someone, no one wanders round randomly approaching strangers and asking if they need support.

This. I have many, really lovely female friends whom I consider like sisters.

I dont want to socialise with random women in my neighbourhood that I dont know simply on the basis that we are female. Just because we share a gender doesnt mean we will get on or have things in common.

Absolutely this, it’s like some on here… “what?! How can you NOT say everything she does it absolutely correct?!! You are both females!!”
if I had to support and agree with a woman because she was a local, that would include wee Nic Sturgeon….. urgggg!!!

Chat to my female neighbours, take their bins in for them, take in parcels, lend them stuff, pass on school clothes, coats etc. I would say it’s strong.

I don’t even know my neighbours name. No way I’m socialising with someone just because they’re a woman.

This. I have plenty of female friends and work colleagues. I don’t feel the need for a specific women’s group to bring me up as I’m quite comfortable with who I am and my good friends. I don’t feel negatively treated by random women in my area either???

In my area, there's several ladies groups - a ladies running group, a Welsh language group, knit & natter at the library and a ladies social group who meet for coffee weekly and have outings to the theatre, cinema, walks etc.

Not in my area. I don't know my neighbours. They're either downright weird / dodgy, work full time or don't speak English and have their own massive family. The most we do is a brief hello or nod as we pass on the path.

I don't understand the question. I say Good morning to my neighbours and we started socialising with one couple because we like them. But I don't need my community to support me. We support ourselves, and we have friends and family who we could turn to in a crisis.

I don't need random people 'supporting' me just because they live near me.

I don’t know my neighbours but we always smile and say hi and chat in the lift. I know my work colleagues much better and I would rely on them in the way you describe but only in relation to work not to my personal life. And I would rely on the men I work with in the same way. I have some friends who are women but my best friend is my partner who is a man. The sort of suffocating female sisterhood that you describe sounds grim. And I consider myself a second wave feminist!

Never known of an acknowledged 'sisterhood' in any area I've lived. I haven't looked for or encountered one. I'm not sure what you're referring to. I've had nice neighbours, men and women. Made local friendships the usual ways.
Can you clarify at all?

I think it's odd to suggest that places either have a sisterhood or ate about 'control' (what do you mean by that in this context?). In reality, women mostly just have female friends and acquaintances, neighbours etc that they interact with to a greater or lesser degree.

I talk to lots of women - my workplace is very woman-heavy and I belong to a choir and another activity group which are mostly female. I can't imagine what a local 'sisterhood' would look like or how it would work tbh and I don't feel the need for one!

Got lucky and met a large group of brilliant local women we are all friends we meet up all the time and support each other. But not random women no.

Yes. We gather together on the eve of every full moon and perform our sisterhood ritual dance to the gentle sounds of Annie Lennox singing "sisters are doing it for themselves".

Then we go and eat cake.

As PPs have said - your question rings a bit oddly. It seems to suggest a very basic, cliched view of women that we’re either massively supportive or complete bitches (basic misogyny). That of course is rubbish: women are as many and varied in type as men. And we’re busy with our own lives.

Have you perhaps lived in areas where most women don’t typically work outside the home and are therefore at home most of the time? Things in the UK aren’t really like that. Women are pretty much as likely to work outside the home as men except where there are very small children in the home. There are lots of community activities built around very young children and mostly (but not exclusively) mothers, nannies and childminders at those.

Otherwise, most of us have a number of communities which we are part of - personally, our neighbours are fabulous and we get on very well, with the women and the men. I have women friends from school, university and work just as i have male friends from those places.

But it would be pretty unrealistic to arrive in your neighbourhood and expect to be swept up and looked after by the women already living there, just because they’re women. Relationships need to be built. Many women are extremely busy and we won’t and shouldn’t be expected to look after a newcomer, just because we’re female.

This is really sad though isn't it

Actually being swept up the way you word it sounds like there is some incapacity there which is actually an insult to hospitable people who may want to shower their neighbour with welcome if they want to.

I don’t think it’s sad at all, I like it.

Could you tell us a little bit about the background to your question, please, OP?

Well, it's not true in my experience, either.

I've always spoken to neighbours in every home I've lived in, as did my parents in my childhood homes.

One could read your initial assumption that people need to be swept up and supported as somewhat insulting too.

I have all sorts of support networks already - my Church, my friends I have volunteered with for decades, my walking group, my colleagues, friends I've had for years.

It might surprise you to know that many of those people are men, too.

I don't need to be swept up by anyone.

If people want to meet up in groups that are women only, there are plenty of them around in Cities, Towns, and villages across the UK, from big National organisations like WI, TownsWomens Guilds, and the like, to local craft groups, knit and natters, book clubs, womens only choirs, walking groups, running groups, yoga classes, exercise groups, afternoon fellowships, book clubs, etc etc etc.

I think most people like to have a cordial relationship with neighbours, where they say hello, but prefer to choose their own friends, rather than feel like they should be part of some local network of people just because they happen to be of the same sex.
I really like the all-female craft guild I belong to, but it's a specific group I've chosen to join, and we have things in common.